How to Locate a Urologist in Your Area
Here are some ways to help you find a qualified
professional near to you. By doing a little research, you can discover
a doctor who is right for you.
A vasectomy reversal requires the skill of a board-certified
urologist who is experienced in complex and delicate microsurgery. This
type of medical doctor specializes exclusively in the diagnosis, treatment
and surgical care of problems of the male and female urinary tract and
the male reproductive organs. In addition, the surgeon may have taken
additional, specialized training in this microsurgery procedure.
Because this procedure is both complicated and time-intensive,
it is normally done on an outpatient basis in a surgical center or office
operating room, utilizing general anesthesia. Depending on the type of
procedure necessary, a vasectomy reversal may take several hours to perform.
That’s why you should choose your doctor carefully, from among the
most qualified candidates who are right for you.
Compile a list from several sources.
Here, presented in random order, is a list of helpful
suggestions you can use to help locate a urologist who’s right for
you.
- Use the
 feature
on this Web site. This option allows you to search through the Vasectomy.Com
Directory of urologists with an interest in vasectomy reversals.
- Ask your health insurance provider. Few health care insurance programs include
coverage for vasectomy reversal, so this is likely to be a fee-for-service
procedure. However, you may select your own urologist from a number of informative
consumer resources.
- Ask your family doctor to recommend a urologist. General practitioners routinely
make referrals to specialists they feel confident about.
- Call a local hospital. You will not need to go to a hospital for a vasectomy,
but most hospitals will provide you with a list of urologists in your area.
- Ask a close friend or family member about their experiences with vasectomy
reversal. "Word of mouth" recommendations are a common way to find
out more, and it’s possible that you know someone who has had a reversal.
This may not be a good source for medical advice, but you can learn how others
became informed and approached their decision.
Credentials: Digging deeper.
In addition to referrals,
you may want to consider the training, credentials and experience of a
urologist. Many practitioners include this information in a professional
practice Web site, a brochure, an informal "waiting room resume"
or a formal, professional biography called a Curriculum Vitae (CV).
You may want to confirm this information with independent
sources. Some ways to dig deeper include:
- Consult medical directories. The American Board of Medical
Specialties (ABMS), for example, allows the public to verify the board certification
status, location by city and state and specialty of any physician certified
by one or more of the 24 Member Boards of the ABMS. It’s free online,
but you will need to have the correct spelling of the individual’s name:
Go to: ABMS [http://www.abms.org/].
- Consult your state or local medical society. Many
such organizations provide a clearinghouse for information that is available
to the general public.
- Check hospital appointments. Typically, hospitals
examine a doctor’s credentials and experience before making staff
appointments. Many also monitor staff performance. A teaching position
at a hospital or medical school can be a further indication of qualification.
Other practical and personal considerations.
In addition to identifying one or more qualified
urologists, some more simple, sensible criteria may also be useful to
keep in mind. You may or may not want to consider:
- Proximity and convenience. People are often willing
to travel a little further to see a specialist. Even so, you will probably
want the urologist’s office to be not-too-distant, easy to find,
have convenient hours, allow easy access and parking, and/or be close
to public transportation.
- Gender and age. Some people have a preference
for a doctor of the same gender or of a certain age group. These factors,
however, probably do not have much to do with the qualifications of
the practitioner.
- Language. Effective communication is important
to every doctor-patient relationship. If this could be a concern, you
may want to ask what languages are routinely spoken in the office.
- Office intangibles. Your experience with a urology
practice can be influenced by non-medical things, such as how you were
greeted on the phone, how the office looks, the attitudes of the staff,
the way the doctor makes you feel and other intangibles.
In Summary:
- Urologists, surgical specialists, perform
most vasectomy reversals.
- You can compile a list of urologists from
several sources.
- In addition to referrals, you may want to
consider (and independently verify) training, credentials and experience
of doctors.
- Practical and personal considerations may
also be important in your choice.
Check out related pages from vasectomy.com…
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