Lost in a jungle of a intial referral!

Hello :)

I am hoping someone can give me some information/timelines. I asked my doctor for a referral to the bariatric clinic almost a year ago and was told I was a candidate. I then called back 3 months later to then find out he in fact did not submit my referral, because I was a smoker ( I did not know I couldn't be one).  I have since quit smoking, and I am finally am a candidate for the referral. I called my doctors office to ensure my referral was faxed, but I am wondering what happens next. The receptionist was no help at all in giving me information (she though bariatric was scuba diving!). So, here are my questions:

1) How do I get my orientation date? Do they call me? Do I get something in the mail?

2)How long does it normally take for them to contact you/mail something out to you?

3) How long is the orientation and is that when you get the rest of your dates, or do they contact you after the orientation with your dates? 

I am sorry if these answers have been answered, but I am lost in a giant world and I am not sure who else to ask. 

Thank you so much :)

I have no idea because I didn't need a referral.  I just called a surgeon and scheduled an appointment.  But if your PCP was sending a referral to a bariatric clinic, why not call the clinic to make sure they received it and ask what you need to do next?

Does your insurance require a referral? Is your doctor aware you quit smoking? A referral only takes a few days. Then generally the office to which you are referred sets you up for everything else you need. However, I as a patient would not be willing to tolerate such a lackluster response time and poor communication. Are you stuck with this office?

You might want to ask on the Ontario forum. There are a lot of people there who've been/are going through Toronto. I'm personally going through Guelph, which doesn't seem to be as fast as Toronto. There, it took about 5 months from the initial referral to the orientation session, and I received the information through the mail. I think I saw somewhere on there that you can contact the Bariatric Registry and see if your referral has been received. You might want to use the "search" function to see if you can find something on that. [Ontario's health insurance plan will cover RNY if you go through one of the bariatric centres of excellence.]

Thanks so much. My doctor is aware I quit smoking, and I am covered by insurance.  I didnt know I could contact the surgeon myself - is this a normal practice? What surgeon did you contact? 

I am not stuck with this doctor, but I feel slightly obligated to him because my family has been going to him for a a couple generations. I am wanting to switch, but feel that may slow the process down even more. 

I am going to post on the Ontario forum as well, thanks! 

I'm not sure how it works if your own insurance covers it (or you're willing to pay); however, I know that if you want OHIP to pay, it sounds like you need to be referred to one one of the Ontario bariatric centers of excellence. Where you end up is mostly based on location, I believe, though it sounds like people can request to transfer to other centers. In general, it sounds like you get assigned to a surgeon, though I've heard of being able to request someone specific. Of course, that may slow things down if the surgeon is in high-demand. As I mentioned above, there's a lot of information on the Ontario forum from the people going through various Toronto hospitals. Someone there can probably answer a specific question that you have. 

Good luck!

It's a normal practice for me to contact doctors I want to see myself.  My experience has been that many times when my PCP's office says they will refer me and someone from the other doc's office will call me is that it often takes a long, long time for them to do that and it's quicker if I just call myself.  Recently my PCP referred me to a rheumatologist and after waiting almost two weeks for a call, I just called the rheumatologist myself and made an appointment.

As far as which surgeon to contact - one that is covered by your insurance and that you might want to perform your surgery.  But if you need a referral from your PCP, then I could contact whichever surgeon he sent a referral to.

I picked my surgeon and my pcp sent the referral over to them. Once this had happened I got on my surgeon's website and signed up for the next seminar that they was having. At the seminar I filled out all the papers for my doctors office and the ball began rolling with next a consultation, I didn't have an approval process with my insurance so next I did labs, I had to go back for my final consult before surgery and needed more labs, then they scheduled surgery date and I was given my pre admission information :) I had surgery 12/16/13 this process took me 7 months to get from start to finish