Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Surgery

I'm going to take a friend to Pittsburgh to have kidney surgery Friday.
Sometime.

At all of their facilities, for all procedures, UPMC refuses to give you an advance
appointment.

A little game they play.
Even for colonoscopies, they have you prepare like it's going to be done at 5am,
but you won't find out when until the evening before. I've seen folks do the prep and fast, then be told to show up at 3pm.

Sure would be nice to know, especially going to Pittsburgh the Friday before a Monday
Christmas.

Conemaugh schedules everything, even simple tests and scans.

Is this just monopolistic UPMC flexing their muscles, or is it common

At our facilities, especially the outpatient surgery center, the pt is usually told to arrive 2 hrs before the “expected” surgery start time. That gives enough time to change clothes, do paperwork, and repeat labs, if necessary.

Having people show up at 6am for a possible 3-4 pm start time sounds like a place that is either quite inefficient, or would rather make EVERYONE miserable rather than deal with a patient here or there that is irritated by a surgery delay.

They don't show up then.

For colonoscopies they make them prep for a 5 or 6 am procedure,
But won't give them an appointment time until the evening before.
So, the poor bas--rd has crapped his guts out, lived on broth, then started fasting,
only to find out his procedure will be 12 hours later. That much longer to starve, for
no good reason.

All tests are like that.
My then pregnant wife had to do glucose tolerance test, and a bunch of
other tests with our first child. We drove 35 miles, one way, to a hospital decent enough to schedule the tests. Instead of using the one 4 miles from home.



I'm told that this facility in Pittsburgh sometimes has distant patients show up
the evening before for early scheduled procedures. I'm kinda hoping for that.

Unfortunately I'm the driver for something my folks arranged, and
they aren't for crap on details or getting ducks lined up.

I just learned where we are actually going, because I insisted on finding out!
No idea what is being done to him, if its out patient, if he will stay, or how long.

Be kinda nice to know if I'm there all day, into the evening, going back?
When?


All I know is he is a grade school friend of mine who i havent seen much of for 40 years. He has been doing some carpenter work for Mom who found out he has been losing kidney function.
Lost 16% more in the last year.
He needs whatever this is done, and wasn't going to do it because he
didn't have a driver.

I'm glad to do this, but everyone wants to make it harder than it should be.
just a simple 120 mile crappy drive, two ways.
Twice?
Darn, just thought about follow up!🙃

I had carpal and ulnar surgery in July on my right arm and I didn’t know what time the next day until 5pm the day before. Same surgery is scheduled in less than a month for the left side and it’s the same deal, 5pm the day before and they’ll let me know.

And I should add, if they did that for an upper or lower GI I’d tell them to pound salt up their ass.

It's not just UPMC - seems to be normal for all inpatient facilities around here.

That's what happened to me last week. I had surgery scheduled on Tuesday and they couldn't give me a time until 2:00pm on Monday. But they were fitting me in before the end of the year while my deductibles were all paid! They were actually as good as it gets. Steadman Hawkins is bada$$!

Nice they did that.

UPMC owns the hospitals, has co-opted the docs into becoming employees (or lose privileges), and has used their power to monopolize the insurance business.

They wouldn't WANT to get you in like that.

Around here, i
t's either UPMC everything,
or herb and mud poultices.

Pretty common practice in big university med practices. I remember a followup trauma clinic that there were two appt times, 7:30 am and 1 pm. Forst come, first serve.

If they are like the medical community down here, they will deliver about a D- service, yet demand an A+ price. Pathetic!

Been there, done that. First stop after leaving the hospital is the nearest restaurant.

Any facility that's run by Ascension sucks like a Dyson vacuum cleaner. All of their "customer service" calls are routed to a call center staffed by east Indians, including scheduling. They make every effort to do everything through a "patient portal" website, which we refuse to use. The one and only time my wife tried to pay a bill online, a hacker almost succeeded in transferring $35K from our savings account to a bank in Singapore!

Surgery experience is somewhat strong, but very limited with providers - to Mayo Rochester and Carondelet in Tucson. Be there at 5:30 am for prep and procedure starts well before or by 7 am.

Some of those other practices described seem very odd - not patient-centered.

Never heard of such a thing. Be there at "x" time before procedure, and have procedure done at or around the scheduled time. Your example, and others in the thread, is a foreign concept to me.

I could understand if you get there and another patient before you took longer than expected.



Clyde

You time is not valuable; yet if you’re late for an appointment or fail to call at 24 hours in advance to cancel, you either lose your place or have to pay. I love no water after midnight then have surgery late in the afternoon the next day. It’s like they deliberately trying to dehydrate you.

Just got notified 10am Tomorrow.

hope it goes well

Basically, the entire medical profession sucks

Truth.

I just had a procedure yesterday and everything was exactly as you described.