How did YOU pick your surgeon and hospital?

[Johnny Stephens]

Once I felt comfortable staying in Seattle (that's easy - Seattle is often touted as the "best place in the US to have a heart attack") I just asked my cardio and regular doctor. I kept hearing that Edward Verrier at UWMC was the best in town, but that others were "just as good" for the type of bread and butter valve surgery I needed (so we thought at the time).

Since UW and Dr. Verrier seemed to be the benchmark, I did some (a lot) of research and became convinced I wanted him to do it. I had to ask for a referral outside of my insurance group, but my cardio was more than happy to arrange it. After I met Dr. Verrier, it was all over and we set the surgery date after only about 30 min of discussion.

I'm convinced that getting Dr. Verrier in my camp allowed me to survive some extremely serious post-op complications.

 

[dwfreck]

Thanks again to all of you who posted the "second round" of responses. Again, they make very interesting reading. I'm nearing the end of my own surgeon/hospital choice (more on that in an upcoming thread...), but please keep the reponses coming, nothing is set in stone yet.