"Reported to hospital at 6 am, and grand piano was playing in this elegant lobby. Fast admit then on to pre op. I was called withing 5 minutes and taken back to change clothes and have the nurses and other staff do their thing. The gowns are not user friendly in terms of figuring out how to tie in back, and very large. I was taken into the OR after my family was called back to sit with me for about 30 minutes. I woke up in recovery three hours later, only vaguely remember moving from the stretcher to the OR table. I was taken to my room within a half and hour of waking up. My family was waiting in the room and it was a huge room, with couch and bariatric chair. The bariatric coordinator was very helpful pre op in finding my room number for my family to wait in, even went to make sure the room was correct which it wasn't and then she got me a new room. The nurses at the station tell the family when to go down to talk to the surgeon. There are no food trays, you all when you want food anytime of day or night. Even my broth was obviously homemade with a real chicken. Confirmed that with the chef myself. Patient care staff are very professional and caring and have a great attitude. They were pulled from other great hospitals in town.
The only billed me an in network fee for the hospital stay, and confirmed that there will be no other bills from anyone as it all covered under the one $100 copay.
Parking is not convenient unless you valet park as the garage is three buildings back behind the hospital, but valet is only $4.00."
"First he quite good looking and young, learned he is age 37. He sounded knowledgeable about obesity and gastric bypass and also sounded genuinely concerned and compassionate about the plight of the obest. He truly believes the emotional health of the surgical candidate is extremely important and specifically understands emotional eating and food as a best friend. He seems to have a busy practice, lots of activity both times I went to his office. His staff strikes me as disorganized and the faces have changed from my visit in May versus my visit per op in November. The office manager trys to keep everything moving I can tell and she is very knowledgeable about insurance issueslrnMy impression of Dr. Garth has only gotten better now that I am post op. He obviously is good at what he does, even used a pain free material for the drain and I did not feel a thing when he pulled it. He emphasizes aftercare from the beginning information seminar. He even attends the support groups at Methodist on the last Wednesday of each month. I will learn more about aftercare when I seem him this coming Thursday but sometime soon I meet with he, the nutritionist, the psych, for an hour. These folks always go to support meetings. Their statistics show those who participate in support groups and take their vitamins and follow pouch rules lose and maintain the best.rnHe discussed the risks at our first meeting and at his seminar and they are covered in detail in the preop consent form. His and his father's stats show low complication rates, and no deaths.rnI think he is excellent overall, both in surgical competence and bedside manner. I tend to be critical of surgeons in particular from my nursing background but he is truly unique."
