"Sisters Hospital has a state of the art Bariatric Surgery wing. It has 10 dedicated private patient rooms. Every person from orderly to nurse to doctor in that wing is trained specifically to care for obese patients, and patients undergoing weighloss surgery. The hospital is clean and well managed. THe staff is friendly, attentive, and well trained. The accomodations in that wing are designed for larger patients- larger seats, recliners, beds, and toilet seats, making your stay more comfortable. The gowns actually fit! (mine was huge on me). They responded within a minute whenever I hit the call button, I never had to wait more than a minute or two to go to the bathroom, or get what I needed. My pain management was carefully monitored, and I was never in any unmanageable pain. The only complaint I would have is that when I was having a minor complication in the recovery room, they did not alert my husband, they just kept him waiting. I was expected to be in there for 1 hour, but I was in there for 3, because they couldn't raise my body temperature. So, I think that they need to make sure, no matter what the case, when that hour comes around, they need to come out and let loved ones know what is happening- even if it just means you will need a little more time in recovery to meet certain criteria before being allowed to be moved to your room. "
"Dr. Caruana upon first impression was kind, friendly, attentive, and very knowledgeable. Over time, my impression of him has remained the same, and I feel I was in very good hands during surgery. I have yet to meet with him for my initial post-op visit, so I cannot comment on that yet. I guess the onlt thing that I could complain about is the wait time to get an appointment, and the lengthy process. Synergy will not even allow you to meet with Dr.C for a consult until you have a letter of referral for insurance by your PCP and psychiatry consult, as well as any additional specialists you may see regularly, such as a cardiologist. Also, Synergy will not schedule your surgery until your insurance has paid for your first appointment at their office- even if they'ce already approved the surgery. It took an additional 2 1/2 weeks for Synergy to receive the payment from BCBS so that delayed getting a surgery date. The staff at Synergy Bariatrics is professional, compassionate, and very knowledgeable. You can tell upon first appointment that everyone there really cares, and loves what they are doing. Aftercare is very structured, and expected. There are follow up appointments at 10 days, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, 1 year, and annually after that. They do labs at a every visit. They have a full equipped fitness club in their office, complete with professional trainers and classes, which a 3 month free membership is included in your post-op aftercare. Dr. Caruana was very thorough at addressing the risks of surgery, as well as his own track record of complications and how they were resolved. He spent a great deal of time with me at consult answering a ton of questions, and really getting to know me personally. he was very thorough on physical exam as well. Overall, I would rate Dr.C a 9 out of 10, being that I believe there is always room for improvement, but he comes pretty close to a 10. He has done over 4000 open rny to date, and his track record is excellent. He is rated in the top 5% in the country. I believe his surical competence is excellent, he is able to complete his procedures in just 45 minutes, with a very minimal long line incision, mine is only 3 inches long. His bedside is equally good, being very caring, attentive, and addressing any issues or concerns right away. The only complaint I would have about the office itself is that their phone and answering system could use some improvement. Because their office is so busy, unless you have an emergency, there really is no way to speak directly to a human, you will get a voicemail to leave a message at all other options/extensions, and then in most cases you get a call back in 24 hours, that is even for scheduling/rescheduling appointments, as I had that experience this week. "
