How did you choose your surgeon?

I've been researching surgery for quite some time, and finally decided to move forward.  I had focused my attention on one surgeon, since friends and colleagues had used him, and raved about him.  Well, I had a consult with him recently and it was a sub-par experience.  Part of me feels like personality shouldn't matter due to his reputation; however, this is the biggest decision of my life, and he didn't make me feel comfortable with him.  Now I feel like I'm starting back at square one.  I'm lucky to live in an area with 14 Centers of Excellence within a relatively short distance.  So the question is how do you choose?  Everyone I look at has gone to reputable medical schools, they have hundreds of positive reviews online, what is the deciding factor?  Without personal referrals, is there a way to tell if one is etter than the other?  What factors came into play in your decisions?

Going into a surgery, I wanted to have confidence in the person who would be mucking around with my insides.  I would go with your feelings, find another doctor.  You seem to be in a place with many choices.  Keep moving ahead and go to a couple more free info meetings and find someone you jive with.  In reality it may only cause a short delay. A friend who had it ahead of me told me to go to several Free Info Meetings and then choose the one you liked best.  You are right - it is an important decision.  

I think this is a strange surgery to find a doctor for - you really want a great surgeon - cutting, knowing the best place to cut depending on your anatomy when they get in there, stapling, no leaks, etc,  which may not be the same skill-set required for helping you deal with the long-term behavior modification that keeping the weight off requires.  I was satisfied that my surgeon seemed to have the surgical skills needed and valued the behavior piece and has others in the office - PA, dieticians, pysch referrals - who do more of the behavioral work, while he focuses on the surgical piece.  This is my observation, I did not specifically discuss this. 

For what it's worth:  I wanted to know the dr's mortality rate =0; that they have been doing this for way more than 100 surgeries(min it takes to get good at it), are not a Johnny-come-lately; have great follow-up - support groups, etc; are not going to drop me if I regain weight and will work with me if that dreaded thing happens; and that the doctor did his/her own assessment that I would be a good candidate.  I liked that my dr had a zero mortality rate and I could tell that he wanted to protect it - that told me that he had some skin in the game of keeping me alive.  Also, my surgeon told me why he thought I would be a good candidate and we talked about goal weight.  He pulled out his calculator and agreed that my goals were accomplishable. I am still in the honeymoon phase, so I know that I may have future difficulties and wanted to make sure that I will not be cut loose to fend for myself if the dreaded regain occurs. I liked that he discussed this in his initial presentation, I am only a year out, so I have not actually run into regain yet.

I had never had major surgery before.  What I was not prepared for, and what troubled me the most post-op, was that I did all this work about the surgeon and then a got a randomly assigned anesthesiologist who, in the ~15 minutes before surgery in the pre-op room, with me already in my surgical drapes, played a combination of 20 Questions and Beat the Clock, and then probably left me brain damaged.  I would insist on meeting with the anesthesiologist before hand, go over exactly what will be done, and by whom, and dumping them if you have any qualms.  You are paying for their services separately and should be able to say yeah or nay.  I think that the way that many hospitals randomly assign anesthesiologists the day before (or the morning of surgery) is terrible for patients (it may be a great way to run a business, but, as for patient care, IMHO, it sucks.) 

If I had to do it again:

1-Get a DVD of your surgery

2-I would rather that my surgeon works with a few anesthesiologist all the time rather than accept the 'Russian Roulette' of whomever the hospital sends your way that morning.  If you know to ask, the anesthesiologist will probably meet with you the day before and go over everything with you instead of giving you the bum's rush in the few minutes before your surgery.  They have a lot of questions to ask and things for you to sign  - I was already feeling half-sedated when she had me signing release papers!  

PS - I went to a Bariatric Center of Excellence.  I consider the anesthesiologist the weakest link in my process.

Might not have even been an anesthesiologist doing it. A lot of times they have you meet with an anesthesiologist when they are only popping in from time to time during the surgery while a crna actually does everything. They don't always inform the patients of this which I think is pretty shady.  I call it the bait and switch.

Wow, That's another thing to check on - who would have thought that finding an anesthesiologist who does a good job would be something to worry about???

I know!  We do so much to research our surgeon, and it's next to impossible to find out information on who is doing the anesthesia and their level of experience.  I don't like that at all.

This is an excellent response.  

Like yourself, I chose a surgeon who had a mortality rate of zero and had done 100's of RNYs.  He is also a surgeon at a Center of Excellence -- but more -- he's the surgeon that handles other hospitals complications and revisions.  Additionally, I loved that he took the time to answer every question, was always on time and professional.  

I agree Finding the surgeon who takes care of other surgeons' complications - that's the kind of person I want operating on me. 

I wanted to go with a surgeon who was not affiliated with a teaching hospital because I didn't want residents or medical students involved. I didnt want a resident doing it.  So I researched the surgeons who did their own surgeries.

like Sharon, I wanted someone with a lot of experience and a good record.  I also liked that he was really easy to talk to and I appreciated that he talked about risks without me asking.  I feel like I chose really well.

Agree.  I remember reading some medical journal articles that complication rates drop with surgeons who have done 100+ WLS.  Not the time to be someone's beta-testing.

• Lowest % complication rate.
• Best technique
• Highest % WL
• Best aftercare
• Lowest % regain

frisco