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10 Vital Items Everyone Has to Be Aware of Prior to Choosing Your Eye Surgeon

A lot of people consider their vision to be their most important sense. Yet, every year thousands of individuals have cataract surgery on their eyes without having done any research on their eye surgeon. Who performs your eye surgery is one of the most crucial decisions you will make.

Author: David D. Richardson, M.D
Date: Feb 26, 2009 - 11:57:09 PM

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A lot of people consider their vision to be their most important sense. Yet, every year thousands of individuals have cataract surgery on their eyes without having done any research on their eye surgeon. Who performs your eye surgery is one of the most crucial decisions you will make.

It doesn't take a great deal of time to choose your cataract surgeon if you know how. The following list of 10 Essential Items Everyone Has to Be Aware of Before Selecting Your Eye Doctor will instruct you how. With this list you can decide on an excellent ocular surgeon in less time than many people commit to choosing their next car.

1.  Do not confine your options to merely those physicians in your insurance network.

Despite what your insurance company's marketing brochures may hint at, the essential factor in regulating who is "in-network" is who is willing to accept that insurance contract. Presently there is no corroborated method of rating doctors and any insurance company that  their network of eye doctors is the most qualified is disingenuous at best.

2.  Ask those you trust
Good sources of information include your primary care physician, optometrist, and acquaintances who have had cataract surgery. Even better references include the operating room nurses and employees at your local hospital. They are often in the OR with the eye surgeon and know which surgeon has the "best hands." Nurses are frequently very helpful individuals and will often be happy to answer your question. The challenge will be getting beyond the hospital's automated telephone maze and gaining access to a live OR nurse.

3.  Research your surgeon's education
Where did your cataract surgeon train? You may not know which residency programs are the best, but it is easy enough to determine their ratings once you know where your surgeon trained. Two objective  are U.S. News & World Report's Annual rating of Medical Schools

http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/grad/med/search

and Eye Hospitals

http://www.usnews.com/directories/hospitals/index_html/specialty+repopht

Don't get too hung up on the rating order - if your eye doctor trained at a top twenty program he or she had outstanding training.

4.  Research your surgeon's State Licensure
Your surgeon must have an active licens to practice medicine in his or her state. In addition to verifying licensure, many state license web sites will also alert you to any history of corrective or legal action against your eye surgeon. In California you can look up this data online at http://www.medbd.ca.gov/lookup.html

5.  Confirm that your Physician is Board Certified
Board certification is a type of "seal of approval" for all doctors. In order to get certification an ophthalmologist must successfully pass both a written and oral test. Additionally, younger ophthalmologists must recertify every ten years - a process that can take up to three years to complete. You can confirm that your ophthalmologist is board certified by checking the website: http://www.abop.org or http://www.abms.org

6.  Visit your surgeon's Medical Practice Website
Assuming the above background check is favourable you can sometimes find useful information from your physician's website. Although several sites do furnish educational articles, keep in mind that the site's fundamental goal is to market the practice. You won't uncover anything negative about your cataract surgeon there, but it can corroborate the constructive information you have already found and give you some insight into the cataract surgeon's background and medical practice philosophy.

7.  Find out what others have experienced.
Are testimonials available online (doctor grading internet sites or medical practice internet site)? Are testimonials available in your surgeon's office for your review? Will your physician supply you  the contact information of someone who had eye surgery that you can talk to?

Keep in mind that National privacy laws determine the quantity of information your surgeon may be able to provide you considering other patients who have had surgery. Nevertheless, it shouldn't be too onerous for your surgeon to come up with a living individual who would be prepared to discuss the surgery experience with you.

8.  Discover how many eye surgeries your eye doctor has performed.
There is a reason they call it the "practice of medicine." Just like a sports professional, a physician's abilities improve with practice and experience. Every surgery differs in its "threshold" number (the number of surgeries required for the ordinary surgeon to become proficient). For cataract surgery I think this number is probably around five hundred.

If you are uncomfortable asking directly then take someone with you to the appointment to ask for you. This is a very important question. These are your eyes. You only have two. Get over your hesitation. Just ask.

9.  Meet the Surgeon.
The above inquiry can give you an idea if your ophthalmologist is well-qualified to do your eye surgery. However, you cannot know if this is the doctor you want operating on your eyes until you see with him or her. In addition to verifying his or her credentials, you need to be comfortable with this person.

Trust is an all important consideration that can't be sufficiently acquired without meeting your eye doctor in-person.

10.  Ultimately, get a second impression.
Most people would not purchase an automobile without test driving it and at least one other auto. Why would you confine your choice of ophthalmologist because "he's on my HMO" before getting a sense of how comfortable you are with the selection your insurance has made for you? This is a very important decision.

Unless you are entirely at ease with your surgeon, get a second impression.
The most experienced doctors do not mind that you have or are going to get a second opinion. In fact, one quick test of your eye doctor's comfort with her own ability is to let her know that you would like a second opinion. If the doctor becomes defensive about this then you know the second opinion was a great idea, after all.

In summary, there are many things you can easily do to affirm that you have made a well-informed decision about who will perform your surgery.  Looking At the importance of your vision, you owe it to yourself to complete this research before having cataract surgery.

David D. Richardson, M.D. is Medical Director of the San Gabriel Valley Eye Associates, Inc. He received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School, is Board Certified, is licensed in the State of California, and has performed over two-thousand eye surgeries. He is taking new patients (even those without cataracts), and is always willing to provide a second opinion for those who would like the peace-of-mind that such a consultation would provide.  In his spare time Dr. Richardson enjoys sharing his thoughts about cataract surgery and disorders of the eye on his blog: http://www.about-eyes.com

San Gabriel Valley Eye Associates, Inc.
207 S. Santa Anita Street, Suite P-25
San Gabriel, CA 91776
626.289.7856
http://www.sgveye.com

View all articles by David D. Richardson, M.D

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