Choosing the right Surgeon Phoenix can make or break your experience and results after surgery. Patients are looking for a variety of qualities when they choose a surgeon, including their credentials, experience, and attitude.
Ask your primary care doctor for recommendations or ask other people who’ve had the procedure you need. Look at the surgeons’ websites and examine their before-and-after photos for results that reflect your aesthetic preferences.
Experience
The popular idiom, “It takes a village,” holds for surgery: Patients need high-quality comprehensive care from pre-surgical planning through post-surgical recovery. That includes surgeons with extensive experience in the procedure you need, responsive support staff, and hospitals with high infection control rates. You may want to consider a facility with the designation of a Center of Excellence. Those hospitals go through a rigorous process to meet and maintain the highest standards for patient safety.
While the Internet has made it easier to compare physicians head-to-head, some sites that promise to show doctors’ track records don’t give you all the information you need. And it’s still important to do interviews with potential surgeons before you make a decision.
Ask each surgeon how often they perform the procedure you’re considering, and ask them about their complication rate. Complications can be a sign that a surgeon is inexperienced or has subpar technical skills, but they can also mean that other factors are at play. A surgeon with higher complication rates may be performing more complex surgeries or have more medically complicated patients than other surgeons, for example.
In addition, you should also find out whether your surgeon has a team to help them when things go wrong. It’s not unusual for surgeons to have residents or fellows assist them in the operating room. That doesn’t necessarily diminish the surgeon’s skill, but you’ll want to know if the assistant or fellow has their complication rates to compare to your surgeon. It’s also a good idea to find out whether your surgeon receives any payments from pharmaceutical companies or surgical device manufacturers because those conflicts of interest can affect the types of equipment or devices your doctor uses.
Reputation
A surgeon’s reputation is increasingly important as patients take a greater role in healthcare decision-making. With 80% of patients checking online reviews when selecting a healthcare provider, surgeons must stay on top of their online reputation.
One way to do this is by utilizing patient feedback tools, such as RepuGen, which provides a user-friendly interface for collecting patient feedback and allows surgeons to respond to reviews directly from a dashboard. Another way to enhance a surgeon’s reputation is by creating and publishing high-quality, patient-centric content about surgical procedures and pre- and post-operative care.
Surgeons can also enhance their reputation by fostering trust amongst potential patients through the use of testimonials and video interviews with satisfied patients. These can be published on various websites, such as physician-rating sites and social media platforms. In a recent survey, patients ranked testimonials as the most important factor when choosing a surgeon.
Another factor to consider is the surgeon’s hospital affiliations and how many of their cases are performed in their preferred hospitals. Ask surgeons for a list of hospitals they have privileges at, and read online reviews to find out which facilities have the best track record in performing the procedure you need.
Finally, patients should be sure that their surgeon is committed to keeping up with the latest techniques and medical advances. Surgeons should be able to demonstrate their commitment to ongoing learning and education by providing evidence such as research publications, conferences attended, or seminars attended. Patients should also be wary of surgeons who receive payments from pharmaceutical or device manufacturers, as these may indicate conflicts of interest. Ask surgeons if they disclose any such payments during their initial consultations.
Certification
When deciding on surgery it is vital to pick a surgeon that has the proper credentials and certifications. Find out both how many years the doctor has been practicing and how much experience they have in performing your specific procedure. Additionally, look into their surgical success, complication, and patient satisfaction rates. Also, make sure they have a hospital affiliation and that the facility has a reputation for excellent care.
In addition to their professional expertise, your surgeon or consultant must have the highest ethical standards. They should be committed to continuing education and always strive for perfection in their practice. Moreover, they should be able to effectively communicate with patients and should treat their patients as they would like to be treated.
The best surgeons have a bedside manner that is both personable and compassionate. They understand the pain that their patients go through and can provide them with resources to help them during the recovery process. They can explain complex medical information in a way that is easy for their patients to understand. They also know when a patient is not a good candidate for surgery and are willing to turn down any procedure that they feel may not be in their patient’s best interest.
Finally, the surgeon should be able to work well with other doctors and specialists. This is particularly important if you are having more than one procedure done at the same time. In addition, the surgeon should be able to work with various types of health insurance plans.
It is also a good idea to check whether the surgeon has an online presence. This is important because it will enable you to compare their performance with other surgeons online. However, the tools available for this purpose are often limited. For example, some of them may rely on data from Medicare that takes years to process and may not show you the entire picture.
Insurance
When you find a surgeon you like, make sure they’re in-network before your initial consultation. There’s nothing worse than meeting with a doctor, developing rapport, and creating a plan for your surgery only to learn that he or she isn’t in-network, which could result in costly out-of-pocket expenses. A doctor recommends calling the number on the back of your insurance card and checking to see if a physician is in-network before you schedule an initial consult.
It’s also important to ask the surgeon where you will be having your procedure. Hospitals have a lot of influence over the outcomes of surgical patients. Ideally, you want to select a hospital that has performed the type of surgery you need many times before and is known for its expertise in that area. Ask the surgeon where they have had the most experience, and consider asking other health care providers at that hospital for recommendations.
Another factor to consider is the surgeon’s complication rate. You may be able to find some data online, though it’s difficult to compare doctors head-to-head. For example, a center collects reams of data about hospitals but doesn’t publish information on individual doctors. It does, however, recently start publishing quality ratings on medical procedures based on hospital data.
You may also be able to check for conflicts of interest on your own. Those payments might influence what type of devices your surgeon uses during surgery, which could have a big impact on your outcome.
Personality
Personality tests – particularly those self-administered like the Myers-Briggs – have something of a bad reputation. At best, they apply a gloss of social science objectivity to a very subjective and cultural sense of traits or characteristics, at worst, they risk reinforcing problematic tropes and stereotypes. Nonetheless, they may have a role to play in improving surgical selection and training. The problem, however, is that focusing on personality testing could run the risk of homogenizing the profession. If the ‘perfect’ surgeon is assertive, efficient, and energetic, we’re in danger of assuming that those are the only personalities that will thrive.
A 2018 study tried to address this issue by applying the Big Five personality test to aspiring surgeons. It found that non-low-performing residents had higher scores in three of the traits – extraversion, conscientiousness, and emotional stability than low-performing residents. The authors of this study were quick to point out, however, that a number of different factors can determine whether someone performs well as a surgeon – including their experience, their education, and their professional development.
Another way to improve patient outcomes is by ensuring that your surgeon does not have any conflicts of interest. This includes financial ties to pharmaceutical or surgical device manufacturers, which can influence the types of procedures they are willing to undertake. The Lown Institute suggests requesting information about this from your doctor before scheduling any procedures. Then, you can make an informed decision about which surgeon to choose. A good medical biller is also essential, as they can help you get the most out of your insurance coverage. The right billing company can save you time and money by negotiating lower rates and eliminating mistakes.