Mississippi Valley Health Magazine
Summer 2008
It’s time to raise the standard on quality health care! What can you do to ensure your or your family member receives the healthcare they deserve?
Be curious. Play an active role in your healthcare decisions!
Our lead story explores questions to ask your physician or surgeon prior to surgery. These are questions that can make a difference in how you look and feel, how you will actually recover and what you ultimately pay for. When faced with the unknown, such as the intricacies of surgery, people tend to allow others, more knowledgeable, to make decisions for them. However with non-urgent or elective surgery, often, time is on your side. Utilize that time to be curious, do research, and ask those important questions that the article suggests. Patients have the power, and it’s time to flex those muscles. Pursuing this information may not be easy, and it will require effort to uncover the facts you need to be informed. Your healthcare providers will notice your interest – and that will get their interest. Your curiosity will lead you to be an informed, more knowledgeable patient.
My vision has always been to challenge the status quo regarding traditional surgical care. And eastern Iowa and western Illinois patients are finding there is a better way to experience healthcare. Since our beginning in 1996, the Mississippi Valley Surgery Center (MVSC) has served more than 90,000 patients, and our ambulatory surgical center has grown, supported by a number of independent specialists performing over 10,000 procedures a year.
Mississippi Valley Health Network providers welcome the opportunity to discuss these questions and review options related to your surgery. Your interest and questions will be appreciated. Listen, understand, question, and consider. You always have options.
—Dr. John Dooley, Publisher
