Further to our numerous emails, I had the surgery and all seems to be going well.  Recovery is slow, but that is to be expected. The surgeon was quite surprised at the extent of the shoulder damage when he went it – from a tear the size of a dime to one the size of a silver dollar was his description.  He noted that had I waited a year to get the surgery, he would not have done it because the damage would have been too far gone! It was a great experience from a customer service point of view.

All appointments were scheduled at my convenience.  During my stay in Phoenix for 2 ½ weeks, I met with the surgeon 3 times aside from the surgery itself.  My wife met with him once while I was in post surgery.  They kept me overnight because my stomach didn’t take well to the pain medication.  Really nice private hospital – great service – smiling faces on the staff!!  It was amazing when compared to the public system here.  – I would highly recommend!!!

The first thing you learn is that it is not possible to speak directly with the surgeon-ever.

Second lesson is that there is no point in leaving a message for the doctor’s assistant. They simply don’t respond to messages. In most cases they don’t even have a message answering machine.

Having to dial the number five or six times before getting through to a live person is probably the average. Medical Office Assistants, as they are called, are gods in Canada.

Contrast this with our recent experience in arranging a phone call with an American physician. Our client had a  cardiac issue he wished to discuss with the doctor. We emailed our client’s contact information to the CEO of a large specialty cardiac hospital in the US Midwest.

Within half an hour, the CEO, who is also a busy practicing cardiologist, had called our client and advised him on a course of action.

Only in the US. Pity.

Hope is well. Just a quick note to let you know that I am now home, doing quite fantastic. I feel like a million dollars with the relief from the pain from my former arthritic shoulder.  The surgeon and his team were unbelievably great. The post-operatic care from the nurses were also more than first-rate. Mike, Barb, Gina and everyone else on the nursing team are to be most highly commended. And the physiotherapist, who was extremely busy, made a house call at 10 p.m. at the Center Inn before we left for Canada!

Thanks again and I will be happy to talk to any prospective patients who are contemplating surgery.

Cheers

D. Pelliccione

I wanted to wait until my 3 month period had passed to write you and say how thankful I am for Timely Medical Alternatives, now that I have completely recovered.

To abandon the “free” medical plan we have in Nova Scotia and be willing to spend the money we did on a hip replacement was a big step for us.

I want you to know how much I appreciated the call from your vacation time in Hawaii, due to administrative problems in the states.  You took control and handled the situation immediately.

Your choice of facility and specialists made the experience as easy as it could have been.  The hospital administration were proficient and friendly; the nurses – wonderful; Mr Rice, the physiotherapist was exceptional.

Thank you once again,

Susan H.

As you can see from the email below that you were cc’d on, the surgery was very much a success.  The surgeon was great.  He spent as much time as I wanted answering my questions, came in to check on me in the hospital and to make sure I was discharged on Saturday morning (his day off), visited me at the house we rented (at his recommendation) a few days later, and was altogether professional and personable.  The hospital staff were similarly professional and helpful, and the hospital itself very comfortable.  The physio, Scott, was particularly helpful and I give him a lot of credit for getting me up on my feet quickly. I have nothing but positive things  to say about the experience.

I would also like to thank you very much for your role in facilitating this.  I think it is a shame that people in my situation need to go the States to do this, but given that they do you provide a very important service.  That service was prompt and professional service throughout, and I thank you very much for your help.  Needless to say I will recommend you unreservedly.

Thanks again Rick.

Ken

Why do we do this? Because our mission is to provide value for dollars spent. We understand why clients would prefer to stay near to home for their surgeries. And if all hospitals provided the same level of service at identical pricing, staying near to home would make perfect sense.

But if the cost of a hip or knee replacement is $53,000 (the U.S. national average), it makes little sense to overlook the hospitals in our network, which charge under $20,000.  Yes, our Canadian clients generally need to fly to these hospitals. But the savings from traveling a little further afield make the choice easy.

Our mission is very straightforward. We seek out hospitals and surgeons which have top notch reputations & credentials, and, which price their procedures at a fraction of the price of their counterparts in Boston, or New York, or Miami, or Los Angeles.

Most people neither know what surgeries cost on average in the U.S., nor what they should cost. Most hospital management people understand this, and they price their services accordingly. And it works. If people resisted paying their high prices, those prices would drop sharply. But again, most people think that “you get what you pay for”.

Well, if you get surgery in any of the 22 medical facilities in our network, you do get what you pay for. Anywhere else? Not so much.

Why would anybody pay $120,000 for a hip replacement in Northern California, if they could get the same quality of surgery in Phoenix, or Oklahoma, or South Dakota, or Maine, for under $20,000.

We insist that hospitals in our network provide good value to our clients. The vast majority of U.S. hospitals are interested in making huge profits (ironically this is most true with respect to “non-profit” hospitals). These hospitals have less interest in providing value for money spent by their patients.

That is why these hospitals do not qualify to join our network.

We have a client who has requested a copy of the printout of an ECG, from the hospital where the procedure was done.

It would take less than 60 seconds for a clerk to find this information and fax it to our client. Instead, she was told “our standard practice is to respond to these requests within 6 weeks”. 6 weeks to perform a 60 second task!

Timely Medical Alternatives operates in the private sector (to the annoyance of the Canadian Healthcare coalition (read “healthcare unions”). Our standard practice is to respond to requests for information within 24 hours.

So, the public healthcare system responds in 6 weeks. The private healthcare sector responds in 24 hours.

Tell us again, which system is most efficient?

We get calls from Canadians who have been suffering, often in severe, immobilizing pain, for years.  And nobody will take the time to listen to them, to hear about their condition. And so they wait, and wait, and wait.

Most Canadians simply have no idea how poorly we are served by our healthcare system, until they need access to it themselves. We are working with a woman in Ontario who has a prolapsed bowel and bladder.  She has been in pain since October of last year. She has been “promised” a surgical date “sometime in April”.  In the meantime, she is bleeding constantly.

Contrast this with another client of ours who needs arthroscopic knee surgery and is on a long waiting list. “Why cant he get his surgery in the public healthcare system, right away?” asked his wife. “Don’t they understand that he is in pain?” “Why won’t they listen to him?”.

Her husband and the woman in Ontario, are just two of the estimated 750,000 Canadians on lengthy medical waiting lists.