General Practitioners

• Electrocardiogram
  Shortly before surgery you need to have a few standard blood and urine tests, electrocardiogram and chest x-ray. Your personal physician can provide a note of medical clearance and any pertinent suggestions regarding your care.

Surgeons

• General Surgery
  It is well documented by consumer advocate groups such as the Institute of Medicine, that physicians and centers of excellence that are devoted to a single area of concentration will have better results than others that may be involved in many different types of procedures. This has resulted in certification of centers of excellence for complex procedures such as open heart surgery and bariatric surgery. There is no board or certifying agency that measures the qualifications of or analyzes the results of any hernia center, so there is no true “Center of Excellence” certification for hernia surgery. There are very few true “Hernia Centers” like HIF where surgeons do only hernia surgery – most are part of a general surgery practice where a surgeon may have an interest in hernia surgery, but continues to perform many other surgery procedures as part of his practice. There is documentation, in the surgical literature, however, that a surgeon who concentrates on one group of procedures such as hernias will have superior outcomes compared to a well-qualified surgeon who does hernias along with many other procedures. Hernias are very common, and many general surgeons have considerable experience with performing hernia operations, but most cannot achieve the level of expertise as a surgeon who does only hernia surgery.

Plastic Surgeons

• Laparoscopic Surgery
  About a month and one-half ago, I hurt myself loading a heavy piece of ready to assemble furniture into a customer’s car with another employee. I developed an epigastria hernia right above the naval. At first, I balked at the idea of going 1500 miles away from home to some strangers I never heard of to cut my body. I had had a laparoscopic surgery for a left inguinal hernia done 6 1/2 years earlier and thought that my doctor had done a pretty good job and did not want to change. After a few phone conversations, I agreed to go to their website and call them. The associates at the institute were extremely empathetic and assured me I would get first rate care and services.
• Bariatric Surgery