Atlantic Surgical Update -- Positive Changes Thanks to You

Hi All,

I just wanted to let everyone know that I passed on the info posted a little while back about the poor experiences people have had with Atlantic Surgical's office, which works in coordination with the Portsmouth Regional Hospital bariatrics program.

Long story short (well, pretty short!): The surgeons are VERY upset to hear about your experiences and they are committed to making positive changes related to the front office, billing and other processes that impact their patients.  They are assessing what needs to be done for improvement and I will be able to share details of the plan on OH in the next week or so.

The bottom line is that none of the surgeons want you to feel this way. It's not acceptable to them and they are committed to your satisfaction.

Drs. Gens, Looser and Paciulli also want to thank you profusely for bringing this to their attention. It was indeed an eye-opener for them.  They are happy to get your feedback and ideas for any part of the program. So keep it coming...

I wanted to let you know that you can feel free to email me directly (if you don't want to post here) with any satisfaction issues (good and bad!): [email protected]. Just keep in mind that email is not inherently secure.

Also, I've just set up a Twitter account for our program so I can pass along updates such as support group room changes, etc.  I'm just getting to know Twitter, but it sounded like it would be a good fit for this group!  Please feel free to follow my "Tweets" at http://www.twitter.com/prhweightloss

Thanks again for helping us continually improve our program.

Best regards,
Grant Sanborn
Portsmouth Regional Hospital
www.portsmouthhospital.com
Parkland Medical Center
www.parklandmedicalcenter.com

This is good news! 
It's pretty well known that the office staff's personalities leave a lot to be desired as I have heard a lot of negatives from people. You can't believe everything you hear....but where there's smoke there's fire....

Grant, Thank you for you help in bringing this forward.  I think many of us have had a bad experience with the staff.  Mine happened to be the very first time I ever called. 
Just a note, many of us are on Facebook and not Twitter.  Is there anyway you could also set up a facebook account too?  Not a big deal, but it would be easier for us. 

Thank you again.

Martha

the link you provided for twitter takes me to a page that says ronnieadm and nothing else.....I've never used twitter before, so could you explain? I searched for prhweightloss and it came up with nothing.

Hi All,

By popular demand, I have set up a FaceBook page for the program! Visit:
http://tinyurl.com/prhweightlossfacebook

The Twitter page issue is weird. I actually saw that same person once before when I signed on, but now it seems to be working fine. If we keep having issues, I'll change the name around. So try http://www.twitter.com/prhweightloss again and let me know if it works!  I also think it must take some time to show up in the search engine at Twitter.

For those of you who don't know, Twitter is getting HUGE.  It is a lot like FaceBook, but it's more about getting quick bites of information out there for people who "follow" fellow Twitter-ers.  A lot of people do it through their cell phone.  It's good for a program like ours because we can send out reminders about support groups, etc. really easily.

Best,

Grant Sanborn
Portsmouth Regional Hospital
www.portsmouthhospital.com
Parkland Medical Center
www.parklandmedicalcenter.com

Thanks for pushing this forward. I personally had only mild annoyances, but heard from others about their problems. I have nothing but positive experiences with the surgeons and hospital staff,  and hope the front office at Atlantic Surgical steps up to the challenge.

I just went to the twitter page and it works OK now -- it's my first time on twitter, so I'm not sure exactly what is supposed to happen, but it is the PRH page. 

Thanks.

Grant-

We are all looking forward to hearing the details of the planned changes.  I hate to say it but it's long overdue.  The office staff at the surgeons office has such a horrible reputation.  I always tell people they should just go to Nancy with as much as possible and minimize their contact with the surgeons office.  We love our surgeons, we love Nancy and the other support staff for the Surgical Weight Loss program.  But every single person I've met in the program (including myself) has had very negative and unprofessional experiences with the surgical office staff (front desk, reception, etc). 

Glad to know we are being listened to.  The doctors are all so great and hopefully this minor unplesant part of the program will change as well so all our experiences are as positive as those with have with Jackie, Jeff, Nancy, etc.

So thanks again for listening to us,
--umber.

Grant,

I had my surgery on 5/5/09. I had some complications and had to come back to the hospital. There were major issues at the hospital with them losing paperwork and I called the office of Dr Gens. I can not tell you that the woman I spoke to was wonderful. I was in an extreme amout of pain and crying, i had been shoved into the radiloy dept and left ofr more than an hour. I spoke to the front desk at Dr Gens office and she not only was very nice, she found my Dr, took my cell phonce called me back and told me the Dr Gens was taking care of everyintg. I had to go to the office after and she was so nice to me, helped me up and could not have done more to help me. I can tell you when I first went to the office others were not so nice but I can tell you from experiance that on May 6th she went above and beyond that day.

Just wanted to give a postive story.