What to Say to the Medical Specialist

What to say to the Medical Specialist when you meet him/her

It is recommended STRONGLY that when it comes to the medical specialists (specialty care as it is sometimes referred to) that you find ONE MD for each specialty and only use them.  None of us have big enough practices to “spread it around” and stay relevant.  You need ONE MD in the following areas:

Orthopedic Surgery – extremity

Neurosurgery – spine

Neurology

Neuroradiology

When you finally meet with them,  you say the following – these are questions not comments…[this is for the spine surgeon as an example]

“If you had 100 patients, how many of them would need immediate surgery?”   The general answer is less than 10%. 

“Out of the 90 that didn’t need surgery, how many of those come back to you needing surgery at some later date?”  The most common answer is they don’t know. 

So this is the #1 point in working with the surgeon, your SPECIALTY is keeping patients in their “loop” until they are ready for surgery when clinically indicated. 

This is the same for all specialty groups.  More consultations will follow; I want to keep this simple for now.  Focus on getting ONE surgeon to refer AND they will refer to you once they understand that they will get the patient back.