"I would recommend St. Mary's. I had good nurses overall (just one that was grumpy). They were responsive to my needs, and even though I was in intensive care I was allowed to have visitors anytime. I had a private room and they were great about letting me get out and walk around. The food isn't great, so family wasn't happy about that, but otherwise, it is a good place to have surgery."
"My first impression of Dr. Schroder wasn't him, but his office staff. They don't really want to talk to you unless you're already a patient. I scheduled the appointment anyway, since this was the doctor my internist insisted do my surgery.
The first time I saw him, I watched a video, which answered most of my questions, and then he was in and out like a shot...I don't think he spent 5 minutes with me. He said I was a good candidate for the surgery, and then he was walking out the door while I was still asking questions.
After I saw him, I waited to hear from the office about my insurance approval, and they told me they were four to six weeks backed up and wouldn't even send my paperwork in until they caught up. I got really angry, and wrote a letter to Dr. Schroder in which I stated my reasons for going to him, and that I couldn't believe that they were going to wait six weeks to get my paperwork faxed to BC/BS. I got a call two days later saying I was approved and I had a date.
After that, his staff was much more responsive, and things moved along pretty smoothly. They scheduled me for pre-op testing, another office visit and the required classes right away, which was great, but they don't care if you have other things to do on those days...you are expected to drop everything and show up when they tell you to.
The surgery went well, although they did not prepare me for an NG tube, which was really hard to deal with. I had a lot more pain than I expected, but they wouldn't give me enough pain meds because my oxygen sats were too low. I told them if I could take a deep breath without pain my sats would go up, but only the nurse believed me. She gave me more pain medicine and my sats went up...so they agreed to give me more pain meds from then on.
Follow-up has been with the nurse practitioner, and she is awesome (Dawn). I am losing weight rapidly, and they are insisting on supplements, vitamins and excersize, all of which I expected.
Overall, I would rate Dr. Schroder a 9. I think his office staff could have been nicer pre-surgery, and I still have questions I would like to ask him about the surgery itself and the need for the NG tube.
I think his surgical competence is better than his bedside manner, although the day of the pre-op appointment and the day of surgery he was upbeat and positive.
St. Mary's was great - if you're going to be in Richmond, you can't beat it.
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