checking out a surgeon?
Posted By: only me on 2006-06-28
In Reply to:
is there a way to check out a surgeon or doctor before making an apt with them? (complaints, track record or anthing else). I've never been comfortable with the "referral" from your primary or whoever it might be because I can't shake the idea of friends referring to friends and not based on qualifications. thanks
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I just had a surgeon ask...
his PA if there was such a breast size as F, get an affirmative, and then say, "so she's a double FF? She has the largest breasts I've ever seen". It made me laugh out loud, I don't know why, maybe it was his tone of disbelief or that fact that he's been around a long time and has surely seen many boobs in his day...thought I'd pass it along.
One surgeon I know always says...
when a patient is ready to be discharged, he always says "____ is peeing and pooping normally." Slays me every time! I just find myself giggling like a little kid whenever I hear it! Peeing and pooping are such a great words...embrace them!
Isn't there a book out there called "Everybody poops?"
I have not seen a surgeon yet.
I want to get my finances ready before I schedule the surgery. My previous experience with surgeons and disability is "go back whenever you feel ready"...they don't seem to want to comit to a timeline. The last time I had surgery I went back way too soon and had complications, so would like to avoid that this time around.
Thanks to everyone who has replied, this is all good advice and info. I think I will plan for the worst at 6 weeks or so and hope for best at just a week or two. It certaily won't hurt to have some extra money saved. 
One surgeon
I transcribe for has many times told them to pipe down in the background. I am not sure if it is because he cannot think with the noise or if he is doing it for my benefit, but either way, I appreciate it.
On the other hand, I had an Indian doctor the other day who sang/chanted his entire report. If you have ever been to a Catholic mass and have heard the priest do that singsong kind of thing, well that is how he dictated his entire report. Every now and then he would hold the note a little longer. It was the weirdest thing.
oral surgeon...
I had a similar situation a few years ago. I paid and the ins. co. paid, dentist kept both payments. After 3 phone calls to the office, no money. So, I wrote a letter to the dentist, put PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL on the envelope, put a cc to the state dept of insurance at the bottom of the letter (dept of ins. scares them more than the AMA (if dealing with MDs) or American Dental Association).
Got my money 2 days later.
need a plastic surgeon
Does anyone have any personal experience with Dr. Michael Petrosky with Plastic Surgery Center of the South in Marietta, Georgia? I am considering using him as I consulted with him and I really liked his manner and explanation of the surgery. I would like to talk with someone who has used him before just to see if he is a good doctor, but how can one go about doing that with the HIPPA laws? The only way I know to find out about patients of his is to ask their office and of course they aren't going to give me names/phone numbers. If anyone has any info on this doctor's practice would you mind sharing with me please? Or if you know of a way that I can talk to a few people who have used him, etc. Thanks very much.
Went to an oral surgeon for a consult for
my son to have his wisdom teeth removed. Charged us $75.00 for the consult. I didn't like the oral surgeon and his office staff were very standoffish can I did not make an appointment with him for surgery, but with another oral surgeon. I had to pay the $75.00 up front - no problem, but they filed the insurance with the money coming to them. It has been 5 weeks now since they received payment and I have called twice asking for a refund. They told me the insurance company had 90 days to come back and ask for the money, but I PAID upfront so what difference does that make, they aren't out anything and they have $52.00 of MY money on top of the $75.00. They said they would issue a check next week, but is what they told me 2 weeks ago. It isn't a lot of money, it is the principle of the thing.
Went to another oral surgeon and they didn't charge me anything for the consult and the amount I have to pay upfront is $300.00 less than what the other office quoted me.
Seeing an oral surgeon is very premature! nm
nm
ASR funny. The surgeon has just done a robotic....sm
radical prostatectomy and signing off he says "Please send a copy to Dr. John Doe and to the prostate, and to the chart. End of dictation".
I think the difference here is surgeon quality
and also patient demographics.
Be sure you are seeing a top cataract surgeon who is doing 6-8 a day and has satisfied patients. Do not wait until you're 90 to see an ophthalmologist. Those patients do tend to have problems with surgery.
I made an appointment with an oral surgeon and he
You have to start at the very bottom and be as conservative as you can. A dentist can take x-rays and fit you with an appliance. I went and found out whats causing my jaw pain and on the x-ray my bones overlap. I was thinking I needed surgery, but we are going with pain management. Since i've had the appliance, no pain, that was a week ago. Very rarely will you need surgery, everyone's jaw "clicks" but if you are a night grinder, this makes it an even playing field for your teeth so they're not fighting against the jaw to become "even" if that makes sense. Good luck.
I transcribe for orthopedic surgeon who utilizes EMR
He dictates notes such as if the patient is having out of hte ordinary symptoms to cover himself should the situation lead to a court room setting. But, yes, between EMR and voice recognition, I believe MTs will over time be less than necessary.
The cost is a major factor. Especially with the population aging like we are. Baby boomers will all be on SS at same time and if health care doesn't figure something out, there are predictions being made that are nightmarish, like the collapse of the health care system. This was said by a person (Dr. Andrew Weil) being interviewed by Larry King.
I do work for a plastic surgeon, insurance will only pay from what I can tell IF - sm
there is a health issue, i.e. continous rash from the folded skin, irritation that medicine will not resolve. But all conservative measures of treating have to be exhausted before they agree to pay for an abdominoplasty. Good luck....I need to lose about 80 pounds and wondering if I will have any sag when done...I have very sensitive skin too so expect some problems (and if so I hope they are enough to warrant my insurance to pay for the removal procedure...otherwise I plan to save up for it)--
I worked for a plastic surgeon for 3 months...sm
and people having face lifts and tummy tucks are in incredible pain after their surgical procedure. My sister chose to have breast implants done and she was in severe pain for about 3 days after surgery. No way am I interested in having elective things like this done!
Well, well, well. Found this blog written by a surgeon sm
who says what he REALLY thinks about the JCAHO. Funny, I found it on Google when I typed in JCAHO and q.i.d. since I wasn't sure what to do about q.i.d. ........
The Death Star of American Medicine
I wish I had written this ( JCAHO Unplugged; registration required), because it gives voice to the feelings that I (and probably 99% of the physicians in this country) have about the Death Star of American medicine -- JCAHO. A few excerpts (emphasis is mine):
That is why it really upsets me to watch the JCAHO people walk through my hospital like they were navigating a toxic waste dump. What upsets me even more is the utter paralysis of normal activity that occurs months before their visit and the huge sums of money spent on mock drills and consultants to prepare for the JCAHO invasion. JCAHO (the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization) arouses more fear in hospitals than MRSA gone wild, and their "visit" has a greater institutional paralytic effect than circulating a neuromuscular depolarizing agent through the ventilation system.
A few unsigned verbal orders, or an anesthesiologist carrying a syringe of Anectine in his or her scrubs, or not locking up I.V. bottles of normal saline will result in conditional or provisional approval, and failure to take remedial action within 30 days may result in the death penalty, which for the hospital means bad PR, and more significantly, loss of all federal money. That's right, you can get the chair for parking tickets in the JCAHO world.
It doesn't matter that the hospital admits 50,000 patients a year, saves countless lives and performs daily miracles. Write q.i.d. twice and you can get your liver transplant someplace else. !["](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2910/889/200/death_star.jpg") A response by Russell Massaro, MD, FACP, Executive Vice President Accreditation and Certification Operations, JCAHO, follows Dr. Cossman's screed. The only thing I can say about it is that he makes clear that unannounced surveys will be forthcoming in 2006. Oh, joy! A lot of the press in the past few days has been discussing issues such as oversight, accountability, and clearly expressed legal authority. JCAHO operates without any real semblence of these niceties, and does so with all the subtlety of a bureaucracy run by Darth Vader. Watching hospital administrators lose bowel and bladder control the minute a JCAHO inspection is brought up has always reminded me of Vader's underlings wilting in his presence --- and for good reason. Without the JCAHO seal of approval, they cannot operate an otherwise well-run, caring facility. The organization, as it was originally intended, was designed to ensure a basic level of safety for all hospitals. It has now become yet another "certifying" agency which must come up with new "critical" problems to fix in order to ensure its ongoing existence (those of you who have gone through the most recent mental masturbatory experience of banning QD and QID in orders know what I mean). What is most galling to me, however, is that hospitals must fork over a hefty sum for these frequent torture sessions, and the inspections are done not by practicing physicians or nurses, but by folks who long ago gave up the difficulties of actually caring for patients for the safety of a clipboard to hide behind. Maybe I have my metaphors mixed up --- JCAHO comes in like the Death Star, but leaves no room for different institutions to solve problems in their own way. The JCAHO mantra can really be translated as "Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!" As a result, I suppose JCAHO is really The Borg.
An oral surgeon can do it in his office, give you an IV and you won't
feel a thing.
Having worked for a hand surgeon who deals with WC and a MT..this is what I know.
The poster below me, Just Me, is pretty correct. A lot of our patients filed worker's compensation, but because there are a lot of things you do with your hands in your personal life, it is a diffcult situation to prove. For instance, we had one lady who was an MT for a few years but was also an avid quilter..she lost her case. We have had people who say have worked for the hospital as an MT for 13 and had no other real side hobbies or jobs outside of that that won her case. They only have so long to approve or disapprove your claim. From what I have seen, anyone who has worked multiple jobs at that same time are not going to win the case because the employer you filed on will fight you and tell them that you were working multiple jobs so how do they know that it was your job with them that is solely responsible. So, depending on your circumstance, employer (you do have to file a claim on an employer whom you will name), you could get worker's compensation which would pay for surgery if needed, PT, and time loss benefits after surgery. The first step is filing a notice of injury with your employer and then they submit it to their worker's compensation carrier. I was the hand surgeon's worker's compensation biller so I speak the truth LOL. If you have anymore questions or what to share you personal story and get my honest opinion, I'm here. I've seen every kind of WC claim you can imagine. Most people are honest but some are not and WC is the first one to nail you. They have even had a private investigator follow people. We had one carpal tunnel WC patient who stated he couldnt work because he was in such pain yet he was videotaped making an extensive bird sanctuary, actually building it with his bare hands.. Can you say busted.. I knew you could.
The plastic surgeon on "The Doctors"
is very reputable. I would go to his website (can find through the show's website) and either email him or call for information/opinion.
The key is to deal with someone you know is on the ball and above board.
I received a check today from the oral surgeon. nm
I would see an oral surgeon, since dentists cannot perform surgery and that is probably where they
would send you to next.
Dot Richardson, olympic athlete turned ortho surgeon. nm
x
Oh, I hope you're right. The surgeon just gave her the info and kind of let her sit on it.
He didn't have time to go over it in a lot of detail. She tried to call back to have him give her more info., but he had left for the day and won't be back until Thursday. So, we'll see. Thanks for posting:)
TIA - THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH FOR CHECKING ON THIS - SM
please do keep me posted. Thank you very very very much.
Thank you. I'm checking them out. (sm)
My most recent experience was more than the 5 years ago that they ask about on the website. Is that going to keep them from hiring me? Is there a test of some sort? Thanks again.
just checking
to see if post worked
Checking
My reports are from 1 to 50 pages. I can't afford to go over the entire report at the end. I do it as I go, using the highlighter on MS Word to mark the last line of each section or several at a time, once they're reviewed. I use a different color to flag things for the doctor or remind myself to go back and review something I need to verify. I just go back and undo the marker points when I'm done. I can't move along without proofing though, maybe because I'm still new at this, or perhaps it's my personality type.
checking--sm
if you have been doing this for awhile and have not received negative feed back from QA, then I would suggest you lighten up a bit on yourself. I leave my grammer checker on and when I am finished with a report, I give it the once over for any *dreaded green lines* pointing out any grammar errors and if there are not any, I send it on. I get very little feed back on my work, negatively. I also check, quickly for any number transposes, as sometimes I get them backwards, but that is a personal thing for me. It saves alot of time if you learn to trust what you do. good luck.
checking
The reason you hire these people is to help you out not add on more work. Believe me been there. There are plenty of good MTs out there, in fact this one is looking!
What about checking
Windows Task Manager? Would this work while you are connected to VPN? Hit CTRL, ALT-Delete once and up pops the window. Choose USERS tab and would that show you if somebody else was on your computer? Just a thought. VPN is supposed to be somewhat protective, but there should also be a firewall and a program like AVG. Where I have worked the IT people do have to know a lot about the computers. IT people tend to be very stressed out because they get blamed for everything IME.
From my checking around,
it seems like you MUST go out on your own and find your own accounts, if you want to make any decent money and STILL have a life! Physicians by themselves pay much better than the MTSO's AND less account specs, cesspool, etc. Cuts out the middleman.
One of mine would "tinkle and flush" an open heart surgeon true - @O
nm
Definitely worth checking into.....
left office to work here. NEVER regretted it. Good tech support, wonderful, easy going supervisors, great accounts, few ESLs, platform is easy to use. Check it out.
Just checking. It's great to see someone who is
nm
checking my smilies
 Make sure you right click on the picture, choose copy then come here and paste. If this works, that's what I did.
I got a DBA for the checking account...sm
but did not get a business license. However, I do not live within any city limits. I was told by the bank that I should register with the state but never did and I do not recall paying any fees. I eventually got big enough where I incorporated which of course makes all the above points moot.
too much time on re-checking
I was just thinking. If I spent 10 minutes per hour rechecking what I have already typed, 10 x 8 hours = 80 MINUTES. That's a lot of time. And I know sometimes I check more than that.
I need to learn to just trust and let go. What is your rule? Do it right the first time, trust yourself, and just move on, or do you pore back over and worry too much?
I have got to speed up a bit. Seems I have always had this problem! 
Checking the dictionary?
Are we watching the same Judge Joe Brown!?! Not the impression I get, at all. LOL!
are you checking references?
nm
yes very helpful - I was just checking
them out at Transcriptiongear, and you can even get pink ones, how cute.
I got my own accounts by checking the want ads.
Any advertised position for a medical Transcriptionist received a phone call from me. I would ask if they would consider allowing the work to be done off site. If they said no, I would thank them and move on. If they said yes, I made an appointment to see the person in charge. I landed a physician's office that was part of a larger physician's group. Through their network, I landed three other offices just by word of mouth from the original office manager. The quality, timeliness and price of my product was valued and through it I received the other referrals. I have never looked for a job since then; they have all come to me. In this job, "quality is job one".
OMG! Before doing all this checking for scam AVs, I'd
rather pay
$ 30.--
for a yearly subscription with McAfee and am safe.
It costs $ 40.-- McAfee PLUS for 1 year and if one subscribes early for the coming year, McAfee gives a discount of $ 10.-- and it comes to $ 30.--.
Firewall is included. The scanning is very strong so that it does not let through programs that I want to install and it asks for permission.
Again: for Tech Support: Why do you not favor McAfee?
I had to have a bowel resection for a Meckels diverticulum and the surgeon charged 2500 and got 1500
and the hospital bill was 27,000. Until that surgeon gets done paying malpractice, his office costs, taxes, etc. I bet he doesnt get one third of that money plus all the visits I had while in the hospital for 9 days and fu visits. I did have insurance thank God.
checking resources on computer
Does anyone know how to check resources on Windows-XP, also on Windows 98? Thanks
Probably because someone can empty out your checking account before
w
Try checking out the IRS website. Maybe there's a list there. nm
x
Have you tried checking the IRS website for their definition?
If there's a standard anywhere, it should be based on that.
I remember checking a document
where the dr had said I was depressed, not because I showed symptoms, but because of something he perceived in a question I asked him. Needless to say, I found a new Dr. That one was obviously mysogynistic before he even got his practice off the ground.
What is your process for checking your work
 Just wondering what everyone does to check their own work before they send it off. Do you read back over the whole thing, read after each paragraph, ....
Completely untrue. I'm checking on the problem. NM
Goldbird
Thanks for the info. I will be checking out the fuzzytummy.com before I order. sm
Is heartworm medication, such as the sentinol, a drug that would require the Rx from the vet?
DH pays the big bills and know he won't have more taken out on him, we don't share checking ac
I have mine and he has his but like I said before, he pays for my car, his and the house note. Just moved here in 2004 and not planning a move, ever hopefully! But, as in my previous post, I have as regular employee been told to take off everything that pertains to my working at home (before becoming IC), room, DSL line, phone (have to have to use the DSL), computer, printing materials, all so I keep all receipts in all years plus we have 3 tax bills for 3 different properties for this past year (just sold a home where I used to live) but all that is kept. What I am saying is I have been told for years as an employee working from my home ok to exempt these. I do not like TAX TIME!!
|
A response by Russell Massaro, MD, FACP, Executive Vice President Accreditation and Certification Operations, JCAHO, follows Dr. Cossman's screed. The only thing I can say about it is that he makes clear that unannounced surveys will be forthcoming in 2006. Oh, joy!
