by Heide » Fri Feb 02, 2007 11:54 am
Hi there, we live in Madison Wisconsin and have our team through our HMO. Our little one has had her lip repair, ear tubes and is scheduled for her palate surgery next week so my experience is limited to this first year. Our first contacts were the plastic surgeon and dentist shortly after our little one's birth. Our appointments are generally prompt with a great deal of personalization from the ps staff (he does other plastics work and I think they like the little ones). they seem to have the cleft clinics 2 times a year and, if nothing is planned, we are not always scheduled for a particular clinic. I find myself making appointments outside the clinics as needed with the individual doctors (ie. ears etc), each of them is very polite (of course, some Drs. are just naturally more approachable) and we seem to get appointments quicker because of our relation to the cleft clinic. The one "drawback" for us was the lack of "take home" information; those first days were so overwhelming and, while we were told things, it just wasn't the same, even if we had just been given this website it would have been so comforting.
We also went to the Shriner's hospital in Chicago to see what their clinic offered in comparison to ours. While we ended up staying with our Madison clinic, I was very impressed there. They were "big" on giving information and the best thing for us at that time is the clinic was more of an all day event; we waited and were called into the different specialist at different times. While we waited we met many children and parents at different stages of the process, it was very informative and reassuring. Their approach is directed by the speech therapist and she was the one we had the most contact with.
In comparison, in Madison, I feel that I do more organizing (its probably better that way as I tend to be a control freak) and have to take notes so that I know when to do follow ups (ie. hearing tests etc.).
In closing may I recommend setting up an "interview" with the doctor and his or her nurse at the new location. I think you have every right to ask them how they run their appointments and who will see you when. I hope this has helped, I know it is a difficult thing when it involves the health of your child. I wish you the best.