How do I find the best surgeon for my area?

[SatoriFound]

Edited to add: At this point it looks like Houston Methodist is the one to go to for 250 miles around me.


I did a basic search and a lot of them don't seem like they actually look into the doctors, all they do is use patient reviews. Yes it is important that a doctor have a decent bedside manner, but it is more important that they are knowledgeable and skilled at what they do. I looked at a few lists and the network I have been seeing doctors in was not in any of them once. This makes sense because their campuses all seem to have high surgery with very young doctors. Like it is a stepping stone for doctors just out of residency. I live near Houston, TX. Are there any prominent ones in this area?

 

[MdaPA]

Below is one website where you can search for hospitals and heart valve surgeons in U.S. by location/state.

https://www.heart-valve-surgery.com/surgeon-database/home.php

 

[SatoriFound]

Below is one website where you can search for hospitals and heart valve surgeons in U.S. by location/state.

https://www.heart-valve-surgery.com/surgeon-database/home.php

Thank you, I will check it out.

 

[AZ Don]

I use https://www.castleconnolly.com/ to find top Dr's, as recommended by their peers, and then Healthgrades.com to see patient ratings and reviews. You can also find top cardiology hospitals here: https://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/rankings/cardiology-and-heart-surgery/houston-tx

Houston has 2 hospitals in the top 20 cardiology hospitals in the country.

 

[SatoriFound]

I use https://www.castleconnolly.com/ to find top Dr's, as recommended by their peers, and then Healthgrades.com to see patient ratings and reviews. You can also find top cardiology hospitals here: https://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/rankings/cardiology-and-heart-surgery/houston-tx

Houston has 2 hospitals in the top 20 cardiology hospitals in the country.

Are those Memorial Hermann and Baylor School of Medicine? After my CT results come in I am going to make an appointment at one of those. With the age of most of the doctors and the turnover in the Kelsey Seybold Clinics I just feel better going to someone with a lot more experience. My concern with Baylor is that it is a teaching hospital. There was a recent uproar about some doctors here that were doing multiple surgeries at the same time, leaving the surgery while the residents were performing surgeries. This seems like a recipe for disaster.

 

[AZ Don]

There was a recent uproar about some doctors here that were doing multiple surgeries at the same time, leaving the surgery while the residents were performing surgeries.

Wow, that is crazy. Apparently Baylor just settled a whistle blower lawsuit on this:
$15M settlement reached after lawsuit claims doctors left residents alone for heart surgeries
They made an extra $150M by doing this, and they are only paying $15M as a penalty!

I would stay away from those 3 Dr's. ChatGPT said that they were named in the Austin Post and on Reddit. Being a teaching hospital is one thing. Doing this is quite another. Houston Methodist is ranked #14 in the country for Cardiology.

 

[Lisa from LJ]

I live near Houston as well, just about 30 miles south of you in Lake Jackson. I have worked for Memorial City, before it was part of Memorial Hermann, which is where I had my surgery. I chose my surgeon because he had trained at Houston Methodist under Michael DeBakey. I've also worked at Baylor St. Luke's and I now work at Houston Methodist. Additionally I was on Kelsey Care insurance for quite a while and I really liked my Cardiologist, Dr. Aliota. If I were to need CV surgery, I have no doubt that I would go to Houston Methodist even if I didn't currently work there. In the past, before BSL became part of CHI, I would have said that HM and Baylor St. Luke's are pretty even, but they've fallen down the corporate world of medicine, and it wasn't that long ago that BSL's heart transplant program was shut down by Medicare and also, the issue that is mentioned with the Baylor physicians. Additionally, there's a reason HM is the only Texas hospital that made the honor roll and is ranked #1 in the state for Cardiology, as well as #15 in the nation. They're really good at what they do and they care about their patients. As to which surgeon I'd go to, I'm not sure as I haven't looked into it. I've heard good things about Michael Reardon for years and he trained under both DeBakey and Cooley, has his own Wikipedia listing for performing the first successful autotransplant for a cancerous tumor, and is also known for his role in TAVR research, but I'm not sure how active he is in the everyday stuff. There are over 30 surgeons to choose from so I suggest speaking with your Cardiologist. Even if he doesn't go to HM (most Kelsey physicians go to BSL), he'll have good insight into the surgeons at HM.

Houston Methodist has a clinic dedicated to valve disease. My doctor (Kurrelmeyer) isn't part of that clinic and I don't qualify to be a patient there because they don't consider me to have active valve disease. If I weren't so far out of surgery (26 years) or my mechanical valve were failing, they would have taken me, so I'm glad to not qualify!

Just a note that if you're on Kelsey insurance, most of the doctors aren't on that plan, nor is the hospital.

 

[SatoriFound]

I live near Houston as well, just about 30 miles south of you in Lake Jackson. I have worked for Memorial City, before it was part of Memorial Hermann, which is where I had my surgery. I chose my surgeon because he had trained at Houston Methodist under Michael DeBakey. I've also worked at Baylor St. Luke's and I now work at Houston Methodist. Additionally I was on Kelsey Care insurance for quite a while and I really liked my Cardiologist, Dr. Aliota. If I were to need CV surgery, I have no doubt that I would go to Houston Methodist even if I didn't currently work there. In the past, before BSL became part of CHI, I would have said that HM and Baylor St. Luke's are pretty even, but they've fallen down the corporate world of medicine, and it wasn't that long ago that BSL's heart transplant program was shut down by Medicare and also, the issue that is mentioned with the Baylor physicians. Additionally, there's a reason HM is the only Texas hospital that made the honor roll and is ranked #1 in the state for Cardiology, as well as #15 in the nation. They're really good at what they do and they care about their patients. As to which surgeon I'd go to, I'm not sure as I haven't looked into it. I've heard good things about Michael Reardon for years and he trained under both DeBakey and Cooley, has his own Wikipedia listing for performing the first successful autotransplant for a cancerous tumor, and is also known for his role in TAVR research, but I'm not sure how active he is in the everyday stuff. There are over 30 surgeons to choose from so I suggest speaking with your Cardiologist. Even if he doesn't go to HM (most Kelsey physicians go to BSL), he'll have good insight into the surgeons at HM.

Houston Methodist has a clinic dedicated to valve disease. My doctor (Kurrelmeyer) isn't part of that clinic and I don't qualify to be a patient there because they don't consider me to have active valve disease. If I weren't so far out of surgery (26 years) or my mechanical valve were failing, they would have taken me, so I'm glad to not qualify!

Just a note that if you're on Kelsey insurance, most of the doctors aren't on that plan, nor is the hospital.

After my research last night I was actually hoping I could get Dr. Reardon. I am not on Kelsey insurance, but we only moved here 3 years ago and they were close, my wife was going there, so I just went there too. It is easier to have everything available at basically the same place. She is wanting to change though because she prefers to have the same doctor for a long time so they get to know her, but everytime she goes in her doctor has moved on and she has to pick a new one. Which also happened to me too. The cardiologist I saw last year was no longer there and we had to choose a new one. Also, they couldn't verify her insurance at one visit, even though it was the exact same insurance she had used everytime, through her work, and she never stopped paying for it. They kept telling her it wasn't valid. They allowed her to go back, but then pulled her back and wouldn't allow her to finish the appointment until SHE called her insurance and got information, then they made her do it again. Then they didn't believe her. It is a managed plan through Washington state as that's where her work's headquarters is, billing is through BCBS, and the hospital was calling the wrong place to verify. They refused to admit they made a mistake. It was very frustrating to her to see how money focused they were even though we HAVE insurance and nothing had changed. It didn't used to be like this when you went to a doctor's office.

If I can't get Reardon I was looking at Atkins, Moritz Wyler VonBallmoos (I have no clue which of those are his actual last name, LOL) & Ramlawi. All three are listed as high, above their peers, in the amount of valve surgery they do, so they have a lot of practice. LOL Have you heard anything about them?

I got my CT scheduled, but it isn't until next week. My wife is going crazy wanting results so she can play Dr. Google. Which is another thing about Kelsey. My test results came in and I didn't get a call from my doctor for close to two weeks and that was from the nurse saying they were referring me for CT. They still haven't explained the results to me. So, I haven't actually been told I need valve surgery, but based on my wife's googling of the numbers I most likely do. It is crazy how fast it progressed. From moderate to severe in 18 months. In those 18 months my cholesterol and bp both went to normal due to meds.

I just really want information and the lack of communication is hard. I want to know if this is congenital or my lifestyle. I did drink heavily for many years. I have never been fat though, even if my doctor qualified me as overweight. I am 6'4" and 219. I get regular exercise. Before my initial diagnosis I was going to the gym 5 times a week. Now it is 3-5 times. Without any feedback from the doctor on my test results I have been trying to keep my heart rate below 130 when I do cardio, but I don't even know if I need to be doing that. I eat fairly healthy, cook most of my meals at home from scratch. I have had a heart murmur for my entire life, this is common among those of us with PEX. It wasn't until 2017 that a doctor expressed any concern over it. I guess it sounded different. It was the doctor I had seen growing up, so he knew my history. He never referred me to a cardiologist though. He was VERY old, far past when most retire , and I probably should have followed up on it myself. And if they suspected BAV in my first echo, why did they not request further testing to check? The doctor didn't express any concern over it, just said to come back in a year. *sigh* The not knowing is the worst part of all this.

 

[SatoriFound]

Wow, that is crazy. Apparently Baylor just settled a whistle blower lawsuit on this:
$15M settlement reached after lawsuit claims doctors left residents alone for heart surgeries
They made an extra $150M by doing this, and they are only paying $15M as a penalty!

I would stay away from those 3 Dr's. ChatGPT said that they were named in the Austin Post and on Reddit. Being a teaching hospital is one thing. Doing this is quite another. Houston Methodist is ranked #14 in the country for Cardiology.

The doctos were: Joseph Coselli, Joseph Lamelas and David Ott I actually saw at least two of those on one of the top surgeons list. I ruled out Coselli immediately after reading his reviews. LOL

 

[Lisa from LJ]

I'm not familiar with the other surgeons you mention. Sorry, it's a case of not needing it personally at this time so I haven't done the research.

I'm very proactive when it comes to my health. When I have a test of any kind, I check MyChart the next day and the next and the next. If the results haven't shown up by the third day, I send a message via MyChart to the doctor and ask. If you have questions, send them to your doctor.

My heart problem was caused by Rheumatic Fever when I was 14 and was labeled severe regurgitation as soon as it was diagnosed and my murmur was LOUD. When I was about 5 years out, my Pediatric Cardiologist told me that if he'd been a betting man, he would have put money on me having surgery within 4 years. I continued to see him annually until I was 30, after my first child was born (which wasn't recommended, but I didn't listen). Pregnancy went so well that I did it again and although I had some blood pressure issues with that one, my heart was the same as always. When I was 36 - 22 years after I'd been labeled severe, it was finally time for surgery. I still felt like I was very healthy, but had CHF for a few years before. All this to say that being severe isn't a guarantee that surgery is imminent.

 

[Lisa from LJ]

The doctos were: Joseph Coselli, Joseph Lamelas and David Ott I actually saw at least two of those on one of the top surgeons list. I ruled out Coselli immediately after reading his reviews. LOL

All three of them are actually known as very good surgeons. I think you can search Coselli on here and get at least a few hits, not sure about the others because I was gone for so long. I can't speak to what happened, but it was definitely a shock to the heart surgery world.

 

[SatoriFound]

All three of them are actually known as very good surgeons. I think you can search Coselli on here and get at least a few hits, not sure about the others because I was gone for so long. I can't speak to what happened, but it was definitely a shock to the heart surgery world.

Coselli has some real haters out there... LOL

As far as the doctors leaving the surgeries... I am sure he wouldn't have done it if he didn't feel that the person he left there couldn't handle it, however I have heard of at least one person with complications that were probably the result of an inexperienced surgeon who had one of those doctors in charge of their surgeries. I understand there is a level of risk with any surgery, but I want every mitigation of risk in place.

 

[SatoriFound]

All this to say that being severe isn't a guarantee that surgery is imminent.

That is good to hear. It's all a wait and see game for me at this point. It doesn't hurt to have some research done though. It will be really nice to be on vacation for a bit. I did my pre-CT blood test today. Does anyone know why you check kidney function for a CT? Does it have to do with the contrast?

 

[Lisa from LJ]

Yes, it's the contrast. There are some rare risks for people with poor kidney function.

 

[SatoriFound]

Yes, it's the contrast. There are some rare risks for people with poor kidney function.

Great! My Creatinine level was smack dab in the middle of normal.

 

[dornole]

Not sure this fits here the best, Satori, but you’ve mentioned a couple times they can’t visualize your valve as well due to PEX. Have they done a TEE or some other kind of imaging that might give a better view?