Interviewing Your Potential Heart Surgeon
As you may be learning or have already learned…
Finding your surgeon is a critical process that requires due diligence and, at times, tenacity. That said, there are many tactics you can use to locate and select the right heart valve surgeon for you.
In my opinion, one key ingredient in the surgeon selection process is the heart surgeon interview. Personally, I interviewed several heart valve surgeons prior to picking Dr. Vaughn Starnes for my aortic valve replacement.
Recently, I was reading the Wall Street Journal when I came across an interesting article about the challenges of asking surgeons tough questions.
This article was appropriately titled Asking Your Surgeon The Tough Questions. It’s a pretty good article that provides some interesting thoughts and references, so I linked over to it for your review (if you like).
In one part of the article it notes, “To help patients be more pro-active, health-care groups, hospitals and medical specialty societies are offering new resources, including Web sites, books and checklists of questions to ask. The aim is to help patients select qualified surgeons, prepare for operations, and overcome the fear that often inhibits them from asking tough questions.”
The funny part about that quote is that one section of my book focuses on this specific topic - how to interview your potential heart surgeon.
While the article referenced-above is good… There are some critical elements, specific to cardiac surgery, that were lacking.
Anyways, I hope this helps you prepare to interview / ask questions of your heart surgeon.
Keep on tickin!
Adam Pick is the author of The Patient’s Guide To Heart Valve Surgery, a unique book which integrates the clinical facts of heart valve surgery with the personal experiences of an actual heart valve surgery patient. This special book was designed to help patients and caregivers better understand the realities of heart valve surgery (heart valve replacement and heart valve repair), to minimize patient stress and to enhance the patient’s recovery. To learn more about Adam’s heart valve surgery book, click here.
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