Go with a good feeling or "by the book"?

[PennyLane 0]

I started looking into hospitals in my area (there are at least 4 in DC alone that do LBS, and probably more in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs), and first went to what is generally considered the "best" hospital in the area--Sibley Memorial. I went to their information seminar and really liked their program and staff and generally got a good feeling about the whole thing.

I just went to obesityhelp.com to read reviews, and there aren't any. This is a pretty new program for the hospital (less than 2 years) and I'm sure that's the reason why. Another hospital, George Washington University Hospital had over 100 reviews and every single one I saw was positive and apparently their program is considered the "Roles Royce" of WLS.

My question is, should it matter? I have a high regard for Sibley as a hospital and confidence in the surgeon and staff and just because this is a new program should that be a problem? I may be doing this self-pay and the price was reasonable and because I may not have insurance to slow things up, basically as soon as my tests are done (about 4 weeks) we can do the surgery...which is much sooner than I expected and sooner than I may choose to do it.

I don't know about GW's prices or how quickly they can accommodate to it or if I'll even have this choice of timing.

Has anyone had experience at Sibley or with other, "younger" programs?

Thanks

Penny

[MacMadame 81]

I'm not in that area, so I don't have any direct experience, but I would say that the important thing is that your surgeon has a lot of experience with the band. There appears to be a steep learning curve so you don't want to be one of his or her first patients.

I look at 3 programs. One had great stats, but they were only on 50 lap band surgeries! That wasn't enough for me.

[PennyLane 0]

I hadn't even thought to ask how many bands he's done. There's no information on the website but he was the Chief of Bariatric and Minimally Invasive Surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center (major Army hospital here in DC) from 2004-2006 before moving over to Sibley to help start this program, so that looks good. I'm be sure to ask that at my next appointment. I'm still open to going to other programs, too. I just really liked this one.