Surgeon's office meltdown ahead of Monday VSG surgery. What to do?

[fatflyboy 9]

Don't really know where else to turn to for advice on this matter, so here goes: I'm scheduled to have a VSG procedure done on Monday, and in the past 24 hours, it has come to light that I wasn't on the surgeon's schedule for Monday. Their office has scrambled to fix everything, but my surgery was supposed to have been on the books for over a month now. The only reason they caught it in time is because the facility was scheduled, and the facility called the surgeon after the facility called me to confirm everything. I then received no less than 4 panicked calls from different people in the surgeon's office basically asking me about what they had originally scheduled. I basically had to tell them my date and time, that I had completed all my preop appointments, and I was, in fact, on the preop liquid diet he ordered currently. Not only that, but I'm self pay, mailed payment well over a week ago, and they are claiming they haven't received it yet while the facility and anesthesiologist have!

Needless to say, this has left me with a bit of an unsettled stomach even more than the liquid diet has! I really want/need this surgery to live a long, healthy life. I've got my finger on the button right now, and I'm in desperate need of some guidance. This is a major surgery, and the fact their office is a major clusterfuck doesn't exactly represent my surgeon very well. I have confidence in him, but that confidence has eroded fairly severely in the past 24 hours. Even this morning, more calls because they didn't schedule preoperative blood tests that I need to do ASAP. This has been a very long road leading up to next Monday, and it seems to all be unraveling at the last minute.

I've asked to have the surgeon call me directly so I am absolutely sure we're both on the same page. Maybe he can talk me down from the ledge. His office seems to be in complete disarray, and I want to be very clear to him that's unsettling to me given the gravity of what I'm supposed to be having on Monday morning. I don't blame the surgeon for his office's blunders, but I believe the people a professional chooses to hire are a direct reflection of their work. I would have heads rolling if I was their boss.

I'd love to hear a series of opinions on what you would do? Reschedule, cancel, find a new surgeon altogether, go ahead with it provided the surgeon calms my nerves a bit? My fiancée, while extremely supportive, is now trying to push me very hard to reconsider. She keeps telling me it's unnecessary, she's worried, etc. I just feel like I've been through the gauntlent and choosing the nuclear option right now would set me back quite a long time.

TL;DR - surgeon's office is full of halfwits and it's causing me to reconsider everything at the last minute.

For obvious reasons, I'm not going to reveal the surgeon's name now. Just hoping this all blows over into a big misunderstanding.

Edited August 21, 2014 by fatflyboy

[jessiquoi 623]

I would go through with it. My feelings are that if something is meant to happen, it happens. If you showed up at the hospital and the surgeon didn't and they cancelled you, then to me that's a sign it wasn't meant to be. Since everything seems to be getting settled, I would take a deep breath, accept that mistakes do happen and that this is only a clerical one, not a life-threatening one.

I totally get where you are, though. It would drive me crazy to have that happen. I hope you have a calm surgery day and a quick recovery.

[Pepper123 320]

Wow i'm set for 9:15:14…but i call yesterday just because a girl in the office used the wrong word…and am less than a month away…if i was in you're position i would for sure talk to the doctor..if u can't speak to him cancel…u are self pay…that just horrible…makes me wonder about that doctor….good luck!!!

[Hawk7775 54]

Have you researched the surgeon? When I first read your post I thought that there is no way I would go through with it but then I realized that once you are in the OR the cluster ____ you are experiencing right now doesn't matter. I did everything I could to research my surgeon including calling my State's licensing board to find out where I could go to research complaints and such. I wanted to know how many he has done, whether any of them had complications, where he went to school, is he board certified, did he do a fellowship or other specialized training bariatric surgery and everything else I could. I even managed to find his wedding pictures online....lol. By the time I was done I felt very confident in his abilities. I do not think I could go through with it without that confidence.

I would want to speak to the surgeon as well. I would ask what he has going on the day before your surgery and the day of. If he has something going on that could hinder his performance I would reconsider.For example if he is coming back on a red eye flight, is already over booked with surgeries or something similar.

I am sure that scheduling mistakes happen and I see how that can be disconcerting but I guess for me the bottom line is that if he isn't going to be dead tired or distracted in the OR and you have done your homework about his background and experience, the scheduling snafu is not really a big deal.

I was second guessing my decision up until they knocked me out so I do think you're in a different spot than I am now, 1 month post surgery with no complications thus far. I am also not a believer in omens. If you did your research about this surgeon before choosing him you just need to sit down and think about whether this situation has simply amplified your nerves or if it has caused serious doubt about the surgeon's ability to do a good job. Worst case scenario you hold off on surgery until you find a new surgeon. Doing the pre-op diet twice sucks but it will give you a leg up on weight loss.

[Arlene G 31]

HI am assuming as the previous poster stated, that you have performed plenty of research on your WLS. We are, after all, putting our lives in their hands. If he has excellent ratings, I would still be furious at his office staff and file a complaint, but would pursue the surgery. The office staff (THANKFULLY) is not performing the surgery, the surgeon is.

My PCPs office staff took over a week, with repeated calls by me..at least once a day...do fax a letter of necessity for the gastric sleeve to my surgeon. Please, as others have stated, complain about the office staff.

Sorry this has happened so close to your surgery date.

[lilijo 187]

Do you have faith in your surgeon? It won't be his ding dong staff performing surgery, so if you like the surgeon, stick with him.

[*Lexie* 1,486]

Wow, what a bad situation. My surgeon's office is very organized and structured and it gives me a lot of confidence in them.

It's a tough call because I would be excited to get the surgery and wouldn't want to wait through the process of finding a new surgeon and jumping through all the hoops again. But aftercare is important too so you likely won't stop dealing with this office after your surgery. If I was self pay, I'd be checking to see what sort of discount they're going to provide for the mistake they made, especially if they don't want me taking my business elsewhere. That might seem taboo to some but you'd never tolerate this service in a restaurant or hotel and pay full price.

P.S. Great profile picture!

[Lorie269 392]

Sometimes mistakes happen. It sucks when they happen to you though. If you researched your surgeon and feel 100% confident in their ability, I would just brush this off and move forward with the surgery. I'm sure the error was not intentional. Good luck with everything!

[CowgirlJane 14,259]

This is a tough one. The surgical skill and comptence is hugely important, but once that is done.... it is the general staff who provides much of the ongoing support. I found it invaluable and loved being associated with a whole practice full of very competent people. This kind of error could happen anywhere, but i would want to feel good about the whole team.

Believe it or not, the finance person and the general office coordinator were hugely important to me post op... as they were both awesome cheerleaders!

[VSGAnn2014 12,992]

For some reason a post I made here didn't show up. Essentially, I said: Yes, if you trust the surgeon, do the surgery on Monday. Unless, of course, they put you far down the line a #8 or #12 or #16 -- or whatever number in line makes you uncomfortable.

Best of luck to you.

[GummyTummy 154]

Pop your surgeon's name up here so we can help you do a little bit of quick research. Hopefully you have already done a great deal of your own, but it would be helpful to know who we are talking about and if this is a repeat issue for his office. That being said, many things such as hormone crazed office politics, a clerical error, a technical error, and general laziness could have contributed to you not being listed on the surgical roster for your doctor. None of which are necessarily his fault. A lot of those surgeons depend on their PA to help setup the schedule and you may have slipped through the cracks because you are self pay and they aren't used to dealing directly with a patient for financing. Paperwork may have been filed incorrectly etc. Do not give up if your surgeon has a good track record. I know you are fearful and everything in you ( I call mine the beast) wants to hold on to your nasty eating habits and doesn't want them taken away or changed by this surgery. Let the new you, the strong you that decided to make this life changing choice put these people in their place, get yourself in early in the surgical rotation that day, or even delay it for a week at most. Keep us posted.

[Sassy Pants1 186]

I know three other people who have used my surgeon and we all agree, the administrative staff is a complete mess. Terribly unorganized and lack simple communication skills. But the surgeons are so highly rated with a complication rate of near zero, we all felt very comfortable moving forward. The competency of the surgeon was my number one concern. Dealing with the unorganzed staff was secondary to me.

[fatflyboy 9]

First - thank you everyone for your replies. Lots of great information here, but most of all, reassurance.

I have researched my surgeon. I don't have any questions of his ability. I am very confident in his process, and the preoperative screening is a lot more intensive than the other docs I've researched and shopped.

Have you researched the surgeon? When I first read your post I thought that there is no way I would go through with it but then I realized that once you are in the OR the cluster ____ you are experiencing right now doesn't matter. I did everything I could to research my surgeon including calling my State's licensing board to find out where I could go to research complaints and such. I wanted to know how many he has done, whether any of them had complications, where he went to school, is he board certified, did he do a fellowship or other specialized training bariatric surgery and everything else I could. I even managed to find his wedding pictures online....lol. By the time I was done I felt very confident in his abilities. I do not think I could go through with it without that confidence.

Absolutely. If there was even a tinge of doubt, I would have moved on a long time ago.

Do you have faith in your surgeon? It won't be his ding dong staff performing surgery, so if you like the surgeon, stick with him.

This is exactly why I'm freaking out a bit. Yes, the front office staff are essentially the people that have bungled this whole thing. His nurses and medical staff have been great - no complaints there. But like I said, had they have been my employees, I would have heads rolling from here to Timbuktu. I think when dealing with major surgeries like this, a professional surgeon should have professionals top to bottom, front to back. There shouldn't be this many critical errors 4 days from surgery.

This is a tough one. The surgical skill and comptence is hugely important, but once that is done.... it is the general staff who provides much of the ongoing support. I found it invaluable and loved being associated with a whole practice full of very competent people. This kind of error could happen anywhere, but i would want to feel good about the whole team.

For some reason a post I made here didn't show up. Essentially, I said: Yes, if you trust the surgeon, do the surgery on Monday. Unless, of course, they put you far down the line a #8 or #12 or #16 -- or whatever number in line makes you uncomfortable.

Best of luck to you.

One of the reasons I chose this doctor and the specific facility was because the doctor does not schedule 15 surgeries in a day. I'm #1 on the docket at a facility he doesn't typically do surgeries at anymore. (The facility has become cost prohibitive for most.) I'm paying extra to go to this facility because I'm self pay and it's the facility I trust the most, but I know I'm going to be his only patient of the day there first thing in the morning.

Edited August 23, 2014 by fatflyboy

[1959JimmyJames 61]

Well then, it seems that you have answered your question. If you have enough time to finish the pre-op tests and have all the paper work in order, then have your surgery on Monday. After surgery you will or should be getting monthly check-ups at that office and you will have plenty of time to give em hell then. You can discuss some kind of a discount for undue stress for their mistake. Whoever dropped the ball should be held accountable for this because this surgery is dangerous and very stressful on us. His office staff should be just as competent as he is. Good luck to you.

[JCP 619]

You know, I have worked in healthcare for 30 years and see this more and more often. The truth is, a lot of bad things can happen to a patient when a physician has a sloppy staff... Prescription and lab screw ups, important messages not delivered... These are patient safety issues. And then the billing fiascos! If the surgeon can do it and you are comfortable with him... And if he gets good reviews, I would do it. To go through that pre-op diet again...ugh. But if they don't fix it immediately, I'd get my money back and write a serious letter of complaint and let the hospital corp office know as well. I hope it works out for you... PS He needs to have a serious talk with his staff. They make or break his practice. Please tell him that.

Edited August 22, 2014 by JCP