For those who went thru Duke WLSurgery Center--How long did it take you to get scheduled for...

I understand that you have to stay on them at Duke WLSurgery Center to get them to call you back after you turn in your application for WLSurgery.  That's me.  I turned it in 2 weeks ago.  Nothing from them yet.  A friend told me to wait about 3 wks and then call. 

I was curious to know from those of you who had your surgery done thru Duke WLSurgery Center--how long did it take from getting approved to start the process to being given an actual SURGERY DATE?  I'm trying to figure how long it might end up taking me. 

I guess I was dreaming to think they'd contact me by now.  I guess I'm also dreaming to think that I might get a surgery date in late Jan or sometime in Feb.  I don't know how long it takes to go from approval to start the program, to dr's visits and what not, to being given a Surgery Date.  Hard to believe that I might be looking at next April or May or possibly even longer...I hope not.  My co-worker had his surgery today in fact.  He started his process at Duke in late May and would have been able to get a Sept surgery date but he delayed due to some vacation plans he had in late Sept.  Thus the reason for his surgery date of 10/13.  It was approximately 4 months or so for him to work thru this program/process.  

Just curious ...thanks :~)

I submitted my application at the end of January...(although I still had like 3 PCP visit thru April)--but they still had my file constantly telling me I needed this or that or my doctor didn't complete something right..As soon as they had the proof of my 6 months of visits they had submitted to my insurance about a week or so later. It took about a week to get the approval..When I got the go ahead they had some dates that weren't far out. I'm talking maybe less than 2 or 3 weeks from the day I got the approval.

I had my surgery on 6/30..so it's not that quick of a process but just stay on them.

Joy

Hello,
I had my surgery last November with Dr. Sudan. I started the process in September and had the surgery in November. I constantly stayed on them; I think that is why I was able to get my surgery so fast.
You just have to stay on them.

Here is the timeline for my surgery:

June 18, 2008 -- Attended Seminar at Duke
July 9, 2008 -- Application submitted to Duke
Oct, 2008 -- Completed 6 months supervised diet with my PCP as required by my insurance (started before seminar).
Nov 18, 2008 -- 1st appointment with Dr. Pryor
Dec 15(??), 2008 -- received scheduled surgery date of Feb 4, 2009
Jan 27, 2009 -- surgery postponed -- insurance needed more info
Feb 3, 2009 -- paperwork resolved with insurance.  New surgery date given -- March 25, 2009
Mar 25, 2009 -- RNY surgery.

So, about 9 months from start to finish.   However, 6 weeks of that was a delay caused by insurance (my PCP didn't submit all the info needed).   Another 2 weeks or so were due to the fact that the Duke WLS offices moved locations in early December 2008.   Tough to get anything resolved during those two weeks.

Good luck!

This varies a great deal. I had my surgery about 3.5 years ago and a lot has changed since then. If it was me, I would contact them and ask them to give you a general time line. After they evaluate your application, I'm sure that they will call you in for an appointment and at that appointment I would want to know what information they need to prepare the package to submit to your insurer. To be honest, this is probably one of the bigger hurdles. Of course, the Dr's/RNP will have some things that they will want to have checked, but your insurance may have their own requirements and this can really be the thing that will impede your progress or not. I checked to see what they normally wanted and had all of those tests done between the time my application was approved and I had my appointment with the team scheduled. I had the appropriate information and tests scheduled and executed as I waited for my appointment. When I went to my initial appointment, they already had my sleep study, EKG, blood tests and whatever else it was that they needed so they were able to submit that information along with the finding of the RNP, and psychologist for their internal medical review ****pt copies of all of the medical records that were being submitted so that if something was misplaced, I had a ready copy). At that time, it took them about 2 weeks to perform the internal medical review. Once the medical review was done and they felt that I was a good candidate for the surgery, I was submitted to my insurance for their determination. Mm insurance had a 30 day window which to evaluate and provide a determination. They took about 2.5 weeks. I knew when the package was sent to the insurance company and I contact the insurance company to find out what their procedure was. I stayed in touch with the insurance company until I found out about their determination. As soon as Duke received the determination/approval, they called me and I had an appointment with my surgeon within a couple of weeks. My surgery followed shortly after. Once the ball really started rolling. Meaning that I had my first medical/evaluation appointment with the RNP/Psychologist, it took about 3 months for me to actually have the surgery. If you check my blog, you'll see the process I underwent. 

Let's see,when I decided to go to Duke the people from OH told me that there would be a lot of calling on my part. And they were correct, however, I decided to go to Duke because of the track record as far as the surgeries went.
I started by attending their seminar in May.I submitted my application the next day.
When I didn't hear anything for 6 weeks,I started calling and all I got was a voice mail for a couple days.Finally I received a call back and got an appt for the middle of Aug to see the Doctor, Nut and Psychiatrist all in one day. When I was leaving from the appt they scheduled me to go to the hospital at the end of the month to have an EKG, Chest X-ray and barium swallow (wasn't too bad). Then I started calling again but this time got lucky and got a pre-op appt for beginning of Oct and surgery date for the middle of Oct. So, all in all I started in May and will have surgery this month.

I will say, once you speak with the staff, they are very nice folks. I don't know if they are very busy or what the slow down is but to me, the bottom line is getting the best doctor you can.

I submitted my application the last week of July and my surgery is scheduled for 10/26.  So right at 3 months.  It could've been quicker but I've had to fight with the insurance company some :(  Good luck to you and I hope things move quickly for you!
P.S.  I guess I've been lucky.  Duke has always called me right back and I haven't had to "stay on them" at all.  Maybe they're improving!

My journey was a little different than everyone else's because I work for Duke but they had an exclusion in their insurance that said I didn't qualify for Weight loss surgery.  I went to Vocational Rehab for help. 

Here are the milestones that led up to getting a surgery date-
1.  October 2009 -Met with Vocational Rehab.  They said I needed to do a 9 months supervised  program with my PCP
2. October 2009 -Went to the Duke Weight Loss Seminar/Applied for Surgery
3. June 2010 -Saw Psychiatry and Dietician at Duke Weight Loss
4.  July 2010 -Saw the NP at Duke Weight Loss
5.  July 2010 -Got approval from Vocational Rehab/They are paying 100% 
6. August 2010 -Dr. Torquati's Nurse called me to give me a Surgery Date
7. October 14, 2010 -Met Dr. Torquati for Pre-op, had pre-op at Durham Regional

October 25th is my surgery date!  It was a LONG process.  Vocational Rehab took 9 months.  Duke Weight loss has taken 3-4 months. I am SO very thankful to Vocational Rehab.  PS. It would have taken longer but I tried to stay a step ahead by getting all of my pre-tests done before seeing DWL.

I'm coming from another surgeon who is relocating.  when I went to Duke, I had already completed 4mos of 6mo supv diet...

went to seminar at Duke on Aug 17th, 2010 faxed appl on Aug 18th
spoke with nurse who advised me to fax all paperwork from previous surgeon..that was on Sept 15th
wasted a week going back and forth about my exercise regiman, I asked cant u set me up with appt with Dr Sudan while I get the info, they advised no, now at this time I had also faxed my 5th mo supv diet info..
I called duke back on Sept 20th, I had faxed papers from the gym I used to attend, which stated the times I went and from year to year, they advised that wasnt enough, so smarty me was getting a little irritated and asked, do u honestly think I spent money to go to a gym and not have some type of exercise regiman (smh), sooo then the Dr nurse asked me on my last visit to nut if she could just put what exercise I was doing...so to my surprise I got a call on Sept 24 with an appt to me surgeon on Oct 25th(a whole month out) and they couldnt get me in to see psych until Nov 16th..now keep in mind they still didnt have info on my exercise regiman, but I got an appt anyway, go figure, a whole week wasted
I faxed my last supv diet on Oct 6th, called Oct 7th to make sure they recieved it  and they did, I asked the nurse if the info about my exercise regiman was ok, she said she will get my chart and call me, till this day no call back, but I finally meet surgeon on Oct 25th
I AM SO SORRY THAT I GAVE U A LOT TO READ...

I went to the seminar on 28 Oct 2009 and hand-carried the application to them on 2 November 2009.  I did not hear a word from them until the middle of January 2010 and met with Dr Torquati on 21 January 2010.  He wanted a cardiac and kidney follow-ups- I have a cardioligist and that was not problem.  It took two months to get an appt with a kidney specialist at Duke.  Surgery was scheduled for 19 April 2010.   Saw the kidney specialist the end of March - he wanted an ultrasound.  Duke would not schedule the ultrasound until May - I told them that it was not acceptable but the insolent  witch at the desk who was most rude did not care that my surgery was scheduled in three weeks.  That dr gave me a prescription with the test he wanted before I left his exam room so he must have known that they could not schedule me in a timely manner.  I called my PCP who gave me the number to Rex and they scheduled the ultrasound for the next day and faxed Duke the results.  Surgery went ahead as planned.

So, to answer your question, from from turning in the paperwork to surgery, about 6 months.