Timothy Custer Bariatric Surgeon M.D.

Dr. Custer is a wonderful doctor/surgeon. He is easy to talk to and answered all of my questions completely.

Dr. Custer is a very competent doctor. My first impression of him was he is all business. But very nice. Over time he became more friendly (open). His staff is very nice and helpful. Teh only problem I had with anyone in the office was with the scheduling coordinator (no longer in that position. I got the impression that she hated her job. Not a good thing for someone in her position. I did tell the Dr. and they now have her doing something else. I think they also got more help for her. Dr. Custer and his staff definatley have your best interest at heart. When I first went to him they did not have a real structured aftercare program. The first Monday of each month we have a support group meeting and you see a dietician about 6 weeks after your surgery. When I was in to see the Dr. my last check up he informed me they were going to have a bariatricion available for their bariatric patients and they are starting a web site of their own as well. (VERY EXCITING) In my opinion it is more important to be surgically competent than to have a good bedside manner. However the more you are around Dr. Custer he has both.

Dr. C was very nice and professional. His staff go out of their way to help you.

at first when i saw him i didn't think he was the doctor, he is a very nice looking young man he was taking care of his charting w/his nurse he was very attentive to me as i just walked up to him and introduced myself he stopped what he was doing shook my hand and began to talk to me as though he had known me forever. this i appreicated more than i could say b/c he didn't have to talk to me he didn't know me from adam but this alone gave him points in my book b/c these days it's hard to get someone to talk to you when you are a patient of theirs let alone if you're not. even meeting his nurse kathy {he introduced}she also was as nice as could be everone in his staff {also carrie, who submits paper to insurance} and the entire staff of dr. nobles i to this date have not had a bad experience with anyone in his office from the first time meeting them all until the time of my last visit this includes my getting on their nerves i know checking to see if any news of my approval from my insurance co.

My first consultation with Dr Custer was on Oct 25,2002. I was very impressed with his attitude in wanting to help people who are over weight. He seems like a very sincere person and really cares. I had to have a sleep apnia test done, per his request. It was done by Dr Clark. It was determined I do have sleep apnia. I feel Dr Custer was very concerned to pick up on this and make me have the test done. I am now waiting for my surgery date. I got my insurance approval letter last week.

It took over 40 days between my first phone call and my first visit but evidently everybody is interested in this surgery these days. My husband went with me and we absolutely loved Dr. Custer and his nurse, Cathy. I don't mean to leave out the front office staff (at Mt. Carmel East but I don't know their names) as they were also wonderful and nice. Dr. Custer and/or Cathy answered all of our questions and put us very much at ease. Told us he would do the insurance letter and it would go out early the next week. That's where stuff falls apart. Pam didn't send it out and didn't send it out and didn't return my calls and so I called the David Haeffler (spelling?), the Office Administrator. He did fax it to the insurance. Insurance then wanted me to have a psych evaluation and that took another 40 days. Then my insurance company kept saying they didn't have this, that or the other when I knew they did. I finally got my approval on 6/17/02. I want to say that Pam was of absolutely NO help to me during any of this process (unless she did something I'm not aware of). The office manager, Patti Bush, was absolutely terrific! She called me whenever she said she would, helped me with my insurance questions and so forth. Whatever they pay Patti, it's not enough!

my first impression of him was that he was nice. my first impression didnt change over time. His staff were very prompt, i made a call and the bariatrics speciallist called me back the same day, other offices didnt call back for a couple of days. He let me know that i was expected to walk 30 minutes a day after care and they had sent a information packet with all the negative effects the surgery has or can have, when i went to a different surgeon they told me the stuff but it didnt really hit me all that could happen until i actually read all the stuff. I have to go to a preop class, and a support group meeting before they will do the surgery plus i get to meet the nurses at the hospital that will be taking care of me before hand so i know what to expect from them so if it doesnt go as they say i can say this is suppose to happen right? and also, i get to meet with him and his colleague and go over what they will be doing and how they will do it and how they will avoid any complications during the procedure. ALso in the info packet it had sample menues and all the forms that needed to be filled out so i had it done before my appointment. It also listed foods to avoid and foods that can cause a reaction. the other office i visited didnt do any of this stuff. Plus after the surgery i get to meet with a nutritionist. Also, he mentioned that i would be a good canadite for laproscopic surgery for my gastric bypass surgery because my bmi is 44.8 and its less trauma then the full abdomen being cut open. I will have 5 holes where they put the instroments in and do the surgery. I will go see him three weeks after the surgery and then every three months until the weight tapers off and i quit loosing weight. So far i think he is very informative and professional and we laughed while talking because he makes you feel comfortable. He checked my heart and breathing and pushed on my stomach to check it out. The other dr i visited before didnt even look at me and his office was ready to do the surgery. Yeah right. I havent had the surgery yet but he seemed to have both bedside manner and surgical competence from what others have said about their experience of the surgery. these are my personal experiences with this doctor so far. I will keep you updated. Also, i mentioned this website to him and he laughed cause he was like i cant imagine being posted in the internet and someone talking about me. I think it would be nice if he posted his resume here for others to see what he has done. Also, he told me he was going to have help with my procedure cause of the detail it takes and that he isnt as experienced as his collegue in preforming laproscopicly. He wants to make sure everything is done to the best it can be done. SO i will be called with my scheduled date, he is thinkin somewhere in december when they both have a free day from surgery. I'm thinking two surgeons have to be better then one. I feel alot better since he was honest with me about his experience in the procedure i am getting done.

I went on january 15th for a group meeting with other patients and our doctor. He answered any questions we may have at this time before our surgery and we went back over the surgery and what to expect and so on. Some one asked about eating and if we needed to do an enima, he said we could eat anything we want until midnight the night before and that a prep isnt needed cause there usually isnt anything in the area they are working on if we dont eat or drink after midnight. Guess who will be up at 11:00 eating cause she will be waiting until 4:30 for her surgery, yeah me. I'm so not looking forward to not eating all day but hey, i'd rather do that then not have the surgery. Also, he said that ideally a patient would be on all clear liquids but he wouldnt expect us to do that cause he wouldnt do it himself, he would want to eat the day before all he could eat. Thats funny to me that he would say that.
Well, i'm really liking this doctor, he has a good professional and friendly personality with all his patients when we were all together in the room. He didnt act like he favored anyone over another person so that makes me feel like i know i'm getting just as good of care as someone else of his patients.

I met Dr. Custer today for the first time. I was very impressed. He is very young and handsome! The staff was great.

I had my consult with Dr. Custer on Friday Nov 8th. I was very lucky and got my appt for two days after I called. I met with his nurse Kathy first. She was wonderful, very nice to talk to. Dr. Custer then came in, went over my papers, asked me some questions, he also did a quick physical exam. He was also very nice. I was in his office about 2 1/2 hours overall(this includes the time waiting to be called back.) He stated they have a very strict aftercare program. He also went over the procedure and the risks and told me that if I have any questions, to feel free to call him or Kathy at anytime. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me and I will answer them the best that I can.

My first impression of Dr. Custer was a very good one....he was extremely polite and very informative. I really enjoyed talking with him and appreciated the fact that he didn't beat around the bush. He got right to the point, put it all out on the table and then asked what I thought. His nurse is AWESOME, Carrie is AWESOME! I actually wasn't supposed to get in for an appointment until December but they had a cancellation two days after I called.
They have a great support group that Dr. Custer requires you to go to before surgery. I really enjoyed it, there are people from all walks of life, all at different places in their lives and it was great, I felt very comfortable and met ALOT of nice people.
Overall I think he's a 10. He knows what he's doing and he's extremely confident in that. I am comfortable knowing he will be performing surgery on me.