Borgess Medical Center Michigan Bariatric Center
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Well glennbcobb I see that my comments about MY opinion of Dr. Verseman meet with your distaste. Good!
Well this was our actual experience and it was the truth and as you said it: THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH.
My comments were about Verseman and I did not take the stance of attacking the messenger or any one on this site. But then along came you!
First of all you are either blowing smoke or Verseman told another lie. Which is it?
How could you have went to a Seminar in January and had Surgery in April?
Verseman’s staff will tell you for any insurance billing reasons you must complete 3 months of weight loss attempt and get weighed in at your doctor’s office, no exceptions. Then after that they will schedule you an appointment to see Verseman. Which is usually a month or more out from the completion of the 3 month requirement of seeing your regular doctor, an at the time of your office appointment with Verseman they will then tell you to see the dietitian and the psychologist and then have lab work done.
So how did you do all that in fewer than 3 months? The staff at Verseman's office would not let us even set the appointment until the 3 months were done prior, so like I said in my review we did what was ask of us, not sure if you lost more than weight with your surgery but it looks like the mental capacity to read and understand what was written was lost also! Too much anesthesia? You might consider looking into that, sound severe.
Who was complaining about not be able to drink pop or chew gum? I was just stating a fact of the major importance of spending 2 hours listing to stuff that was not necessary and could be discussed in a consultation with the Dr., furthermore I have been to 3 different seminars with different surgeons and everyone of them have different ideas on how and what to do prior to and after surgery.
By the way, at the seminar you were told to decide which one of the surgeries you wanted to have! When you get to the consultation you are given no choice of surgery. I wanted Lap-Band because if things got screwed up it could be reversed, but was told NO!
Dr. Verseman wanted me to have the sleeve and not the Gastric Bypass. But then my insurance would not cover the sleeve, so now we see the other difference in Quality of Care, which we now know without asking because you had the sleeve so you had private insurance and not Medicare like us. Big difference, private insurance pays better then Medicare….OOPS that makes it a money thing, silly me thinking Dr. Verseman cares…he does about money only.
We have done our due diligence. As for third world quacks most of them work in the US and care more for their patients and are more skilled in Quality of Care than the ones like Verseman that are in it for the money!
If it quacks like a duck and walks like a duck then it must be a quack, i.e. Verseman!
It will be just a matter of time until someone dies from the rushing of people through their office.
I would like to say this, that the only person in Dr. Verseman’s office that was so special was Gwen. A real sweet heart.
Glad you’re having great success with your weight loss. Seems like you had no problem losing 70 lbs prior to surgery. I heard the surgery was for those not able to lose the weight by themselves! That is why they did the 3 month thing!
Just think you almost made it on your own but just could not turn the corner. I gave up smoking 4 packs a day with Chantix and it only took 15 days. It’s been 4 years now smoke free, just got to focus a little harder on the weight thing and lose it the good old fashion way. I do need to get more exercise thou, so I was thinking of buying a farm with a pond! Know of any good Quacks for the pond…LMAO!
0 of 8 people found this helpful
If you like to be run around and told one lie after another then this is the place to go! Dr. Verseman is affiliated with Healthcare Midwest PC and performs surgery at Borgess Hospital only and I plan on informing as many people as we can to what to expect and what you will be getting or not getting. We went to a seminar In May of 2010 which lasted 2 hours plus and you must go to this before you can proceed. Remember this if you are planning to attend and ask these questions before you wait for the full two hours of the biggest waste of your time will be. One you will find that after the interdiction of the Dr. and then he speaks about where he is from and what he has done, etc. Then you have someone tell you about how you can never have any beverages that are carbonated or ever chew gum for the rest of you like and the list goes on and on. Then surprise you will have someone stand up in the audience that was a patient and had all this great weight loss success. You think to yourself, nice to see this and congratulations on a job well done. But here is what you should know and the staff at Dr. Verseman will tell you one thing and when you finally get to have your consolation with the Dr., he will tell you a different thing. This is how it really goes and this was our experience and our thoughts. I hope it informs you to make a wiser decision.
May 12, 2010 went to seminar at 6:00 at night until 8:30 pm.
May 13, 2010 did all the paper work and filed it online and then tried to set up appointments to see the surgeon.
May 13, 2010 told by office staff that we must see our family physician for 3 straight months to prove weight loss attempts even though our insurance said it was not necessary. The truth was that the Dr. has more people coming in to see him and that the 3 months was to buy time to fit you in.
September 23 appointment with Dr. Verseman. Called prior to confirm on how long appointment was going to take and how long after seeing the doctor before we would have surgery done. Was told by office staff that seeing we had the 3 months of visiting our family physician that is should be no more the 3-4 weeks to do lab work see the psychologist and the dietitian. Sounds good, so we keep the appointment. Arrive at the Dr.’s office and because we came together we wanted to see if we could do the consolation together and was told no. Then we got called for both of us to go get weight and BMI checked etc and then had consolations together anyway. During the consolation Dr. was asking questions off of one of the patient forms and then the other and was even getting thing mixed up between the two of us. During this consolation the Dr. states that we must see the family doctor for 3 straight months then come back and see him. I then refreshed his memory that he must have missed that on the form or the other paper work in the file showed that we had already did this. His comments were “Oh well do it again”. At this point I am getting very agitated over the lies told by staff and Dr. acting like he did not know any of it. What we think, this is the plan from the start because they are seeing way to many people for one Dr. to handle and if I can feed them all into my office for the $252.00 office charge then they can buy more time and make more money. Heck if you knew this was going to happen during the seminar, how many of you would have walked out and looked for another surgeon. Also find out that they are going to start to see 6-8 people per consolation at the same time, they call it networking so you can find a friend and bond. I call it a faster way to bill for more people per hour. Wow $2016.00 per hour!
Ok, now it even gets better, Doctor tell me that I need to lose 60 lbs., even though there is no criteria that said I had to be a certain weight. Yes being way to big there is and not weighing enough there are. But this was not the case even according to his Administrator Cindy Welch. Now I ask you this? If I can lose 60 pounds, why would I even need to see the Dr.? So we go upfront to get our next appointment and it was scheduled for January 28, 2011 at which time we were told we would see the Dr. again and if time allowed we could see the Dietitian and maybe even the Psychologist. Do you not think that the appointment to see the Dietitian should have been before I tried to lose 60 lbs? During the consolation you will hear how the Dr., favors surgery on women because they hold their weight low in the hips and butt where men hold it in their bellies. Also you are told at the seminar to decide on which surgery you want so that you can talk about it at your consolation. I wanted the Lap Band because if there were any problems it could be removed and reversed and my partner wanted the By Pass because he is diabetic and during the seminar you will be told how this weight loss surgery will change most of these problems and during the consolation you will be told different. Flip flop and miss information, no really?
Got home and the next day was furious about being led on by staff and doctor so called and cancelled the appointment. But do you think they would ask why? Do you think they would say let’s set up another appointment? No, Nothing? It must have been expected because people do not like to be lied to and they must be used to having appointments cancelled. So I figured this. We are out all this money for making 3 trips to the family doctor for the 2 of us. Running to this seminar and wasting 2 ½ hours of our life and being so excited about the surgery only to have everything come crashing down at the consolation and paying more money to only find out that is all a waste, I then decide to call the Administrator Cindy Welch and voice the concerns and problems and then look for another surgeon, they tried to charge us for transferring or files and I told them we were not paying for them to be sent as we were already out lots of expenses because of the lies. Of course after the Administrator Cindy Welch does her investigation she did not call back and I had to keep calling to get the response. Wow, what a shocker that she would side with the Dr. Silly me to think she would get to the bottom of it. So I filed a Quality Care complaint with my insurance company and I also filed a Quality of Care complaint against the Dr. with the State of Michigan which is currently being investigated. We then both get a letter in the mail stating that we have been released from the Dr. because one must have trust with their provider! No kidding, trust and the truth not lies and deception.
Ok so it ends there……….oops. Not! You see my Urologist I find out after seeing him he is affiliated with HealthCare Midwest PC and because I filed a complaint with the state over Verseman I have been discharged by HealthCare Midwest PC to see my Urologist Dr. Blix. Such a shame if you have a complaint over a doctor that you get black balled by them all. Well needless to say I David and I am pursuing Goliath with all the means at my disposal.
Good luck with your decisions and hope you make the right choice in Dr.'s
2 of 13 people found this helpful
A Heartfelt ‘Thank you’ Dr. Verseman, Karen Orr, Surgical Staff, Recovery Nurses, Gwen , Patti, Terri, Cindy and all others in the office and on the team for your commitment to saving people’s lives. (Kalamazoo, MI)
Today I want to let everyone who is reading this post and possibly considering having Bariatric Surgery know that I vote for Dr. Verseman and his staff!!!
My daughter and I had Gastric Bypass and my husband had the Sleeve surgery by Dr. Verseman and his team. It has been one year ago today that my daughter age 24 had her surgery. She has lost 150 pounds as of today. I am 11 months out and have lost 90 pounds. On December 28, 2010, my husband had surgery and has already lost 61 pounds.
Thank God for Dr. Verseman's abilities, professionalism, wisdom and commitment in making sure that all patients are correctly prepared for this life changing surgery. Yes, it means that you must attend seminars, appts with the Psychologist, and the Nutritionalist plus the numerous Dr. visits with your primary care doctor and any other necessary Dr. visits.
Dr. Verseman and his staff are 100% committed to their patients. Many of Dr. Verseman's staff have had Bariatric surgery as well and have firsthand knowledge that they can share with each of the patients that come in. Dr. Verseman is truly the surgeon that I would recommend for Bariatric Surgery.
The Seminars that Dr. Verseman provides for his patients that are considering the surgery is very helpful and informative. We live in a society where obesity is prevalent. There are many people that are reaching out to find help to live a healthier lifestyle. Dr. Verseman is now offering group consultations which include a private one on one consultation. My husband was able to participate in the group consultation before his surgery. This allowed for my husband to meet other patients that were scheduled to be on the recovery floor at the same time. One of the patients stopped by several times while walking in the hall. They were able to give each other support. Speaking of support, there are several Bariatric support groups that are phenomenal. This is so important to continue to be successful as the years go by.
Ever since day one, Dr. Verseman has stressed that this surgery is only a tool, the rest is up to the individual. It is important to realize why you may overeat and be overweight. With the necessary Dr. visits you continue to learn the new ways of living life after this surgery. You must be willing to be committed to changing your old habits and ways and realize that it is important to rely on Dr. Verseman and his staff to guide you along the way. They are the professionals and they do know what they are talking about even though sometimes we don't always want to hear the things that we need to change.
I’m glad I got this chance to recognize the people that have truly been a blessing and instrumental in giving us a second chance in life, living a healthier lifestyle.
5 of 7 people found this helpful
My first impression of Dr. Verseman was He made me feel that I was more then just a # to him.(which I felt that way with another Dr)He described the surgeries very well. What I should expect from the surgery and what he expects from me. The Staff is Amazing. everyone's very nice and always answers all the questions I have for them. (Future patients) Dr. Verseman knows what he's doing and he really cares about YOU and your health. I would TOTAL recommend Dr. Verseman to my friends & family that are interested in having bariatric surgery. (I have already... she's starting soon=)
8 people found this helpful
He and his PA, Karen Orr are just wonderful! They are understanding and very knowledgeable. Bariatrics is their only specialty. Iwas their most difficult patient due to many previous abdominal surgeries and they successfully did my lap RNY. They are Borgess Bariatric Center in Kalamazoo, MI. I was very prepared pre-op and pst op for my life's journey. I will be part of this center for life. The only negative thing I can say, is that he's too busy and it takes too long to get an appointment with him! They are worth the wait!
8 people found this helpful
He seems very confident and careing~
Office staff are very nice!
Very emphasized on after care and how I am!
Extremely thurough in explanations and very willing to answer any questions.
So far I think he is 8 or 9.
5 people found this helpful
My first impression of Dr. Verseman was that he was firm and assertive. When I met with him one on one at the first consult, though, I found him to be warm, caring and almost familiar -- like a family member I don't see often. I will accept nothing less than compliance and wants all of his patients to succeed. The office staff is GREAT! I only talked to Gwen for a short time, but her personality and mine are very much alike. I was made very aware of aftercare and how much Dr. Verseman wants to see me after surgery. His rate of complications is very low so I feel like I am in excellent hands with him. Overall, I am handing my life over to him...if that isn't the highest of ratings, I don't know what is.
6 people found this helpful
Dr. V is extremely kind and compassionate. The staff in his office have put up with a lot from me. My original surgeon left his practice to take a position at the cleveland clinic, in a panic I did a lot of calling and a lot of questioning with Dr. V's staff, they are all fantastic!
4 people found this helpful
My first impression of Dr. Verseman was confidence. He took all the time I needed, answered all of my questions,was ready to help me change my life for the better. My impression has not changed.rnHis team is always available to me, his MA has had the surgery and she has first hand knowledge of all the questions/concerns I had.rnBe prepared to stick to the rules, Dr. Verseman wants the best results for you.rnAftercare is vital and with the structured program you really know what your doing.rnWe discussed all the risks, I asked him to treat me like a non-medical person, he explained everything twice. I was scheduled for a sleeve gastrectomy but had a problem with my pyloris and ended up with the RNY, this was not the plan. Dr explained to my family and me(still groggy). The next day Dr. Verseman sat down and explained everything to me again.rnHe gets high scores.Did reasearch before I scheduled the appointment(working at the same hospital gives you the inside info.) Competence is most important. Dr has an awesome bedside manner. rn
5 people found this helpful
Dr Verseman completed my husband's bariatric surgery (RNY). I wouldn't have considered going to anyone else. I was about 200 pounds lighter than my husband so getting surgical clearance was much easier for me. Dr Verseman's staff was phenomenal. His professionalism, as well as his demeanor helped me feel confident and comfortable every step of the way. His emphasis on aftercare seemed excessive before i lived through it(twice). Keeping up with the vitamin regimen, pushing the hydration as well as protein consumption all add up together to make a very well rounded program. I feel energized, my hair only thinned a teeny bit, and my skin actually glows. I would rate him number ONE in the kalamazoo area(the only area i know). My husbands friend is now getting prepared to have his rny surgery with Dr Verseman. I vote for surgical competence in a surgeon. It's the only important thing when surgery is involved. rnrn
1 person found this helpful
I am a nurse and have worked with Dr. Verseman on previous Bariatric surgery patients and I was always impressed by him. He also has a great PAC Karen who has been available to me through the whole proceedure.His MA Gwen has undergone bariatric surgery so the team is very complete. The front desk peoople are a little pesky esp. about money. Aftercare is very important and Karen does most of the followup but they work very closely together to make sure that you are acheiving your potential. Dr. Verseman sits and explains all the risks and benefits with you,, not once but twice. This was very impressive as he knows that I am a nurse who understands all of it. This was my experience with Dr. Verseman and I can only hope that yours would be much the same.
1 person found this helpful