HATE MY HOSPITAL/STAFF!

 While I really like my surgeon and trust her fully, I absolutely loathe her team! the nurses have terrible attitudes and they're never organized! Examples, i have to many, but the most important was the coordinater who didnt send in my paperwork to the insurance company in due time, and cancelling my surgery the day of!

She never spoke to me personally about the medical clearence letter until the day she called me about my cancellation. I mean come on, i never been through this process, what the hell am i going to know, i only know as much info as they give me which is bits and pieces.  I have seriously thought about changing hospitals because of it, but im in a time crunch, where I need to return to school in january, and I don't have time to do this process all over again. Im seriously sick about it im so stressed. please offer any advice! 

Demand to speak to the surgeon. Send the surgeon an email, leave phone messages, place noitce on office Facebook page, etc.  Is "she" the surgeon or office manager??  Changing hospitals--is your surgeon on staff there or just doing surgery there? Typically, surgeons have their own office and are insured to practice at a hospital to do bariatric surgery. DAVE

Situations like this cause me to rethink my doctors.  Most doctors (along with an office manager) hire their staff.  If your doctor is hiring staff that is rude and incompetent and hasn't fired or replaced them...then I tend to think something is wrong with that doctor or they have little control over the every people they pay.  Rude nurses and incompetent staff are bad for business.  All I can say is that the squeaky wheel does get the grease.  I would complain to the surgeon and let her know that her staff are causing her to lose surgery dates and screwing up the insurance authorization. 

 i will speak to the surgeon, but of course my timing is off cause shes off on vacay for thnksgiving. i dont know what to do. 

 I feel your frustration.  My experience was not as bad but my doctor has one nurse that is just a waste of time.  I took in my papers 2 weeks BEFORE surgery to get all my FMLA work set for my job.  The Friday before my surgery I still had not heard so called the office again and discovered she had not sent them yet.  Reason?? I just don't have enough time in the work day!!!  She was going to do it THAT day.  So I had my surgery and the process is I have to call the office every day until that is all approved.  It usually only takes 1 or 2 days to approve once submitted.  Every time I called the office she never called me back. 10 days after surgery I still had not gotten approval and now my job is on the line.  I finally raised a ruckus. 

I left messages for the MD, for the insurance lady, for the nurse (AGAIN) and finally the bariatric coordinator with the hospital.  She looked thru my file and said the paper work did not seem to be there and she would call the dr herself.  Guess What!!  THAT AFTERNOON I FINALLY GOT A CALL BACK.  Next day I was approved.  

So you do what ever you need to do and get people on the ball.  This is YOUR surgery and stress is high enough without dealing with inept personnel.  Be your own advocate!

I would call the pre-approval office of your insurance and ask them if they have received your paperwork and where your benefits requests is in their process. You can obtain the reference number for the inquiry you are making. If they have received your package, they should have opened a case number for your request. Once you have made inquiries, finding out if they have your paper work you have ammunition to go back to the admin people in your surgeon's office and tell them what your insurance is saying to you. This will get the two offices to sync up and hopefully you can get approval.

If you don't mind waiting and you want to find another surgeon, it usually takes less overall time because you have done the prep work. If you don't like the doctor's staff I would seriously consider alternatives.

In my own experience, the doctor's staff were a mixed bag, ultimately I made the decision to stick with him because I wanted his expertise.

Even though the hospital is a Center of Excellence it turned out that my stay was absolutely horrific. I would not take my sick pet to that hospital. So go figure...