Procedure done at hospital or specialist?

[AmandaD. 35]

Hey everyone!
I am just starting out my process trying to get all my ducks in a row before January when my insurance kicks in and everything begins… is there any significant difference when choosing a hospital setting over a Bariatric specialist setting to get gastric bypass procedure? I would assume maybe billing might be easier going through a hospital but any other pros/cons?

Thank you!

[catwoman7 10,844]

what's the bariatric specialist setting like? Is it in his/her office where you get the surgery and then get sent home after a couple of hours? If so, I know some people do that - although personally I'd rather be in a hospital that first night in case anything happened.

[AmandaD. 35]

On 08/05/2022 at 09:00, catwoman7 said:

what's the bariatric specialist setting like? Is it in his/her office where you get the surgery and then get sent home after a couple of hours? If so, I know some people do that - although personally I'd rather be in a hospital that first night in case anything happened.

Yeah, it would all be done at the specialists facilities. So all appts & procedures would be done there as well as he has his own dietician, etc. He has great recommendations/ratings but I’m back and forth which is best. Thank you!

[RickM 1,747]

It sounds like a surgery center, which are usually set up on an office building or industrial park, and are good for minor outpatient procedures that don't normally need full hospital services, including overnight stays. It's not too unusual to see VSGs done outpatient and go home the same day; I'm not sure I would want to plan on anything more complicated than that in that setting.

My concern is that, while in the nominal setting the procedure and recovery may go well enough to go home the same day, but if it doesn't, then they need to transport and check you into the hospital. If there is a "minor" concern, will they go through the hassle to do that rather than take their chances and send you home? if you're already in a hospital, then the decision to stay the night is an easy one.

Usually, outpatient in a hospital is anything under 24 hours, so an overnight is an easy decision if necessary. I've had a couple of orthopedic procedures done as hospital outpatient, and the first one I did stay overnight, as I was still running a bit of a fever and felt it would be better to stay there until that settled - if I went home and it got worse, then I would have to go back and check in again as a new patient. It didn't and I went home in the morning. The second one I went home that afternoon as all felt fine. I would rather have the option.

When I had my VSG, I was definitely not ready to go home that same night; the pain of straightening out to roll our of bed, even with assistance, and IV pain meds, was too high. The next day it was fine (but I was kept another day after that because the hospital was slow in doing some of the routine post op tests that the surgeon had ordered - he was not amused.)

In short, unless your doc's clinic or surgical center has provisions for overnight stays, I would much prefer a hospital environment for a bariatric procedure, particularly with the slightly more complex ones where they are slicing and dicing the intestines as well as the stomach.

As an added note, I did have my plastics done at a surgery center, which is a much bigger deal than the original bariatric procedure usually is, but that included transportation and stay at a private nursing facility as a planned part of the package, so that can be an offsetting factor if that is part of the deal.

[AmandaD. 35]

Thank you!!