My doctor has recommended the surgeon I'm scheduled with - but the hospital isn't a 'center of excellence' and since the surgeon is new to Illinois, he's not showing up on any 'list' of surgeons with feedback.

I trust my primary care doctor, but have started second guessing my decision. How did you choose a doctor? Is the Center of Excellence necessary? Once you look at training and education, the selection process used by the medical group and a primary doctor recommendation, is there any other way to find out about the doctor's experience?

You should check with your insurance company if they are paying. I know with my insurance company I could only use a dr. that is on their Center of Excellence lists. I have Aetna. You can also look on the internet and see what you can find out. Also their is a section on here that lists different doctors. Good luck.

Choosing a Center of Excellence was important to me, and eventually to my insurance company when I got that far along............but I'm finding that equally or more important to the surgeon is his or her office staff. The time in surgery when I was out far exceeds any time awake and aware that I've spent with my surgeon..............but his office staff is another whole story. They are exceptional--and I knew that from my first visit.

Center's of Excellence are dedicated to meeting gold standards and the highest goals for excellent patient care....that is a "must" in my book for initial research of a surgeon.

While I'm not thrilled where my COE clinic is physically located...........the surgeon, and more importantly his entire staff, make all the difference in the world!

At first, I only considered surgeon's at COE's..............I'm certainly glad I choose one where the staff is also superb!

I don't know what state you are in, but in Ohio, the licensing board for physicians is accessible to the public. You can see when they got their license and where they went to medical school and if there are any public actions against them, lawsuits, license suspensions, etc. It is one way to check on the doctor.

Good luck

Robbie

Just because he's not on a list for Illinois, doesn't mean he's not on list in the state he came from. If you can't find him that way try googling him.

z