                                      
Tampa
General Hospital was named one of America's Best
Hospitals for Head and Neck Surgery
by US News and World Reports, and one of America's
Best Hospitals in Endocrinology by
US News and World Reports. Six years in a row!
Our surgeons are ranked in the top 1% of all US surgeons by
US News and World Reports.
Click
to Verify
All our surgeons have been selected as one of
America's Top Surgeons for the past 7 years.
Our surgeons are Fellows of
the American College of Surgeons.
Drs. Norman and Politz are both Fellows of the American
College of Endocrinology.
Dr Norman and Dr Politz are members
of the American Association for Clinical Endocrinologists.
Dr Norman and Politz are members of
the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons
Our surgeons have been rated by our patients in the top 3% of the
720,000 doctors in the US.
Click to Verify
Our surgeons are members of the Endocrine Society
|
|
Parathyroid Surgery Made Easy--How to Become Our
Patient.
 Parathyroid
surgery can be difficult and challenging. Because of the demand for
mini-parathyroid surgery, their expertise, and exceptional results, we perform an average of 11 or 12 parathyroid surgeries per day 4
or 5 days per week, an average of 58 parathyroid operations per week, about
2300 per year. This includes an
average of 30 parathyroid patients from outside the state of Florida each
week. We have developed a system which allows patients to have their
hyperparathyroidism evaluated prior to taking the trip to Tampa. Remember,
100% of our patients get mini-parathyroid surgery... Its all we do.
YES, if
your scan is negative you still get a mini surgery. We do the same mini
operation if the scan is negative. Stop getting scans! We make
parathyroid surgery simple, safe, and successful. This page will tell you
how to have your operation with us, what it costs, how the process works,
and what you can expect.
The Norman Parathyroid Center is
by far the world's leading parathyroid treatment center with the world's
most experienced team dedicated to
parathyroid disease only. We perform surgery within the new Parathyroid
Center at
Tampa General Hospital, a new wing of this large hospital built for our
team. Drs Norman, Politz, and Lopez are
the only surgeons in the world that limit their practice to parathyroid
surgery. We perform more than 15-20 times more parathyroid surgeries than
any other hospital in the world. We don't do breast
biopsies, gallbladders, and obesity surgery--just parathyroids. Because of
our expertise, people from all over the US and many other countries travel
to Tampa to be cured of their parathyroid disease (see our MAP
of where these people live). This experience
gives our team unparalleled results. Historically, over 99%
of all patients are cured at their very first visit with us--almost all via an
operation that takes between 15 and 23 minutes, going home in about 1.5 -
2 hours.
We strive for a cure rate over 99% because we simply can't allow patients
to go through the trouble of getting to Tampa and not being cured. Note: Don't let the fact that we
treat so many patients with hyperparathyroidism and perform so many parathyroid operations make you think that we don't treat our
patients well. We do! In fact, every parathyroid patient is given our
doctor's home
telephone numbers and cell phone numbers so they have access to them whenever they need. We don't have an answering service. Importantly, we do not have students or
surgery residents perform any parathyroid operation. There
simply is no way to perform mini-parathyroid surgery with the expertise we
provide while having a surgeon in training who hasn't even finished their
general surgery training being the person performing the operation. Click Here to read more about Drs
Norman, Politz, and Lopez.
Our goal is to provide the safest and most successful
parathyroid operation available anywhere in the world. We will help
arrange all aspects of the trip except the travel. Typically a patient
can fly to Tampa, have parathyroid surgery, and return home in the same time that
he/she would be in the hospital if a standard parathyroid operation was performed.
Virtually 100% of all patients go home within 2.5 hours of the
operation (for our past 16,500+ parathyroid operations that didn't
require major thyroid surgery also; thyroid nodule
patients still go home in an hour or two).
| With one visit to our Parathyroid Center you will
spend about 4 hours with us and take care of every aspect of
this disease--putting it behind you for good. During this
one visit you will consult face to face with two of our three
surgeons (the most experienced parathyroid surgeons in the world),
have a sestamibi scan by the team that invented many aspects of
the scan (and has done far more than any other center), have your
mini operation by the best parathyroid surgeons in the world, spend time in the recovery room with a view of the
ocean (Tampa Bay), visit with the surgeons after the operation to
review the photo of your tumor and the amount of hormone the tumor
was making, and then head home (or to one of our partner hotels).
And, with the exception of the operating room, your family can
stay with you the entire time. You get the doctor's home and cell
phone numbers, and one of them will call you the night of surgery.
You don't need any scans or x-rays before you come here (we very
strongly prefer
you do not have any scans of any kind) because we do everything in
one visit.
The scan, doctor visits, operation... everything done in one visit. Put
this behind you and get on with your life... feeling better and
living better! Simple, Safe, and Successful. |
Click
Here to read what patients say about having surgery at the Norman
Parathyroid Center. When you return home, you simply see your
endocrinologist or family doctor in about 2 month's time. There are no
stitches to take out (they all dissolve). You simply remove the small band-aid
7 days after the operation. We will provide you a pre-printed lab slip to get your blood tested in
a month or two and will send the results of this test directly to all of
your doctors. We will
communicate directly with all of your doctors who will be sent detailed
information about your parathyroid operation--they will have all your pertinent records
before you see them a month or two after the operation. Your doctors will
also get a personal letter from our doctors describing what was done and
they will get a photo of the removed parathyroid tumor and detailed
measurements of your parathyroid hormone levels. The best part of course, is
that minimal parathyroid surgery performed by these surgeons has a cure
rate over 99%, the risk of complications is
extremely low (far less than one tenth of one percent risk), the incision
is very small (almost always one inch or less), does not require
full endotracheal general anesthesia, and postoperative pain is
very little (usually lasts only a few hours).
THIS
IS NOT A BIG OPERATION. It is a safe and quick outpatient procedure.
And yes, everybody gets a mini operation even if their parathyroid scan
is "negative". We do NOT decide on who gets a mini operation based upon
the scan results. Please read that again--this is what confuses the most
people. Everybody gets a mini operation here, we do the same operation
on everybody regardless of scan results (we look at all 4 glands in
almost all patients). STOP GETTING SCANS!
We wish nobody got a
scan before coming here... it will not help and will not change what we
do. And yes, we will take care of any worrisome thyroid nodules
during your operation--we do this all day long.
|
Norman Parathyroid Surgery Center
STATISTICS FOR OUR PAST 17,500 PARATHYROID OPERATIONS*
Updated: 12/31/2011 |
 | First parathyroid operation cure rate:
99.6%, Overall cure rate -
99.8% |
| Average Operative Time - 19.1 minutes (total time from
first cut to band-aid) |
| Average number of parathyroid operations performed every
day - 11 - 12. |
| Average number of parathyroid operations
performed every week - 56 |
| Number of parathyroid operations performed annually -
about 2,350 (15 times more than any hospital
in the world) |
| Number of high calcium patients consulted on annually -
about 3,500 (25 times more than any hospital
in the world) |
| Percent getting a "mini" parathyroid operation -
100% (Its all we do -- everybody
has a mini-operation) |
| Percent getting a "mini" parathyroid operation
if they have a negative scan - 100% IMPORTANT |
| Percent getting a "mini" parathyroid operation
if they have 4-bad glands - 100% |
| Percent of our patients who had NEGATIVE scan prior to
coming here: 79% please don't get a scan. |
| Percent that have their thyroid gland assessed
during the mini-parathyroid operation - 100% * |
| Hyp0parathyroidism Complications (removing
all the parathyroids-a terrible complication) - 0
(none). |
| Wound Problems (infection) - 0 (none). |
| Number of times that a voice box nerve was permanently
injured - 1 (once in 17,500+), 10 years ago. |
| Percent spending night in hospital - 0.05%
(near 0% from 2004 to 2011) - only
ten in the past 14,000+ * |
| Percent going home within 3.5 hours of the operation -
99.9% (in past 15,000 operations) * |
| Average wound length (average for ALL
patients obese and skinny combined) - 1.0 inch |
| Average wound length if all 4 glands have to be
removed/biopsied - 1.0 inch--its the same! |
| Average wound length if a thyroid nodule has to be
removed also - 1.0 inch--no difference. |
| Average wound length for patients under 140 pounds - 1/2
to 3/4 inch. |
| Average amount of blood loss during the operation - less
than 3 cc's (essentially none). |
| How often we re-operate
because another surgeon was unsuccessful - every
day (usually 2 or 3 per day). |
| How often we operate on a doctor - virtually every day
(usually 6-8 per week). |
| How often we operate on a nurse - at least
10 times
per week (usually several per day). |
| How often we use doctors in training (anesthesiology
residents) to help with your anesthesia - never. |
| How often we have doctors in training (surgery residents)
do part or all of your operation - never. |
| How often we operate on people over 80 years of age -
Average more than one per day. |
| Number of times Dr Norman has been sued - Never. |
| Number of times Dr Politz has been sued - Never. |
| Number of times Dr Lopez has been sued - Never. |
| How often we publish in major medical journals -
about every 2-3 months. |
| How often our patients send flowers and candy - almost
every day! |
| Number of States our patients come from every year - 50
(typically 8-9 from other states every day) (see map!). |
| Percentage of all parathyroid operations performed in
Florida that are done here - about 77%. |
| Percentage of all parathyroid operations performed in the
U.S. that are done here - about 11% |
| How often we operate on patients from other countries -
several times per week. |
| How often we operate on patients from Canada - average
about 1 per week (national health system? -
UGH!, note; this makes us the number one parathyroid
surgeons in Canada, as nobody in Canada does this many). |
|
 Setting Up an Out of Town or Out of State Visit at the
Norman Parathyroid Center at Tampa General Hospital.
Drs.
Norman, Politz, and Lopez perform all operations with their dedicated surgical
team at the Parathyroid Center at Tampa General
Hospital, one of
"America's Best Hospitals" in seven different medical
specialties, including Head and Neck Surgery and Endocrinology
(that's us...for 6 years in a row!). We operate in a dedicated wing of the hospital treating
parathyroid patients only. Tampa General Hospital provides us with a
tremendously talented team who is dedicated to parathyroid disease--thus
the repeated accolades and awards. Note: the Parathyroid Center at Tampa
General Hospital is so nice, the patents have nicknamed it "the
Parathyroid Palace". Take a Video Tour of our new Parathyroid Center.
There is more about our
center on another page.
|
We take almost all
Insurance Types for the Parathyroid Operation ... however, patients
living outside of the Tampa Bay area are required to pay a
"Consultation Fee"
We accept most insurance for the cost of the operation, including
Medicare. Our hospital, anesthesia team, x-ray, etc will also accept
almost all insurance payments for the operation. HOWEVER,
There is a $750.00 Consultation Fee that is charged to all
Florida patients who don't live in the immediate Tampa area. This fee
covers the cost of organizing your medical information from all of
the various sources and entering your information into our huge
computer database of thousands of parathyroid patients so your
disease can be reviewed by Dr Norman, Dr Politz, or Dr Lopez--who
will then determine what your best course of action should be. One
of the experts will call you on the phone and consult with you about
your parathyroid disease, putting it in context with over 20,000 other patients that they have seen and our computer has
analyzed. Almost all cases are reviewed by at least 2 of the
experts. IMPORTANT! Your insurance will not pay this consultation
fee and it will be your responsibility. This fee covers the
organization of your chart and the phone consultation with Dr
Norman, Dr Politz, or Dr Lopez. This fee is for your consultation
before you get to Tampa to determine if you have parathyroid
disease, how severe it is, and what your best means of treatment
would be. This fee is not dependant upon you having surgery with us.
Important--this saves you the costs of an office visit, a day of
travel to and from Tampa, and a night in a hotel.. and gets you the
opinion of the most experienced parathyroid doctors in the world.
However, this fee is NOT billable to your insurance company,
so don't ask them to pay it--they will not--it is not their
responsibility. If you cannot afford this fee we are sorry, but
don't ask for a consultation. Your insurance will not pay it.
If you think the fee is a lot of money, just think about the money
you will waste getting sestamibi scans and x-rays that won't help (and we
won't use). Want to save money? Don't get scans and x-rays. Stop
going to the doctor to "watch" your high calcium levels
for years.
Out of State Patients must pay a $1650 Consultation Fee. If
you don't live in Florida, this is you. We will obtain approvals
from your insurance company and take care of the billings to your
insurance company for the cost of the operation, however,
insurance companies will not pay this chart prep, data entry, chart
review, and phone consultation fee. Therefore, the fee for the
consultation is 100% the responsibility of the patient. This fee
includes assimilating your records from your various doctors into a
parathyroid-specific chart that Dr Norman, Dr Politz, or Dr Lopez will review. It also includes entering all of your data into our
secure database that will compare your disease with many thousands
of others with this same disease so we can predict prior to
your operation what your best treatment is, how many parathyroid
glands are bad, and what symptoms may or may not improve. One of our
three expert doctors will then call you on the phone for a phone
consultation. This process typically saves you at least
one or two days of travel time, one office visit, and one night in a
hotel. And we won't spend your money on dumb, unnecessary x-rays and
scans.
This process works extremely well. The use of the computer database
is one reason why we have the highest cure rate and the lowest
complication rate in the world. There are no exceptions to this
$1650 Consultation Fee if you don't live in Florida, and this
fee is the patient's responsibility--the insurance company will not
pay this fee. The primary purpose of this fee is so you
can have your medical records reviewed by Dr Norman, Dr Politz, or Dr
Lopez and receive a phone consultation to discuss your
parathyroid disease and to develop a treatment plan. This fee is
NOT billable to your insurance company, so don't ask them to pay
it--they will not--it is not their responsibility. If
you cannot afford this fee, don't ask for a consultation. Your
insurance will not pay it. If you do not have surgery with
us, but go through the consultation process, then this fee is due.
This is not a surgery fee, this is a consultation fee to see if
you need surgery for hyperparathyroidism. Parathyroid Re-Operations:
If you require a second
surgery (or third, etc) for parathyroid disease because a previous
surgeon was unsuccessful then the "Consultation Fee" is
$2500. Your
insurance will not cover this consultation fee, so if you don't
come here for your first parathyroid surgery, please pick a good
surgeon. The insurance WILL cover the cost of the operation. This
"complex" consultation fee is also applied to all patients
that require a parathyroid operation and have had THYROID surgery in
the past 20 years, but the fee will be $2000. This
"complex" fee will be applied to ALL patients needing
parathyroid surgery who have had a previous thyroid or parathyroid
operation regardless of what state they live in. This fee applies whether you have a phone consultation from
Canada or
you live down the street and consult with us in the office. This
type of surgery is much more complex than first-time neck operations
and there are few doctors in the US who do this type of operation
with any frequency. Your chart is much more complex. The disease is
more complex. The decisions preoperatively and intra-operatively are
much more complex. The decisions that need to be made prior to the
operation and the planning of the operation is much more complex.
Our computer database and experience with these patients is
unparalleled. The
preparation of these patients is significantly more difficult and
takes considerably more time for Dr Norman to review and study. Of
course, the extra time we put into your problem almost always means
we can find and remove the tumor that other surgeons could not. Our
success rate for re-operations when other surgeons were unsuccessful
is over 99%... and 99% of the past 1000 have gone home an hour or two
later. About 15% of our surgery schedule is re-do parathyroid
surgery... pick your surgeon wisely. We do between 1 and 3
re-operations every day because another surgeon couldn't find the
parathyroid tumor. The $2500 consultation fee is your responsibility and cannot
be submitted to insurance for reimbursement. It also takes longer to
put together the records for people who need a re-operation, so know
that it may take 2 (or rarely 3) weeks to have a consultation if
somebody else has already tried to cure your parathyroid disease.
Patients Seen in the Office: While
our practice is nationwide, we welcome those patients living in the
immediate area of our office (30.0 mile radius), at 2400 Cypress Glen Drive, Wesley Chapel, FL 33544, to come in for a traditional in-office
consultation. Since parathyroid disease is not very common, this
rule affects only a small portion of our total patient population.
Whether you can qualify for an office visit vs. consultation by
phone will be established by MapQuest
Maps. If you live within the 30
mile radius and come to our office for an office consultation then
the Chart Prep and Data Entry Fee is $150. This is an additional fee
that is NOT covered by your insurance, and is your responsibility.
This fee is in addition to your insurance co-pay and deductibles (if
any). This fee is payable prior to your office appointment or at the
time of your appointment. Your insurance WILL NOT PAY THIS FEE.
THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS TO THIS FEE.
Waiting Lists - When Can You Have
Surgery by Drs Norman, Politz, and Lopez?
We see far more parathyroid patients than any other hospital,
clinic or doctor in the world (averaging more than 130 parathyroid
patients per week of which about half are new parathyroid
patients). Thus, we typically have a surgery waiting list of about
3-4
weeks from the time Dr Norman/Politz/Lopez reviews your chart. It
takes about 1-2 weeks for your chart to be completed and for one of
our doctors to review it. Thus, the entire
process from the time of submission of the online form to an
operation is usually about 3 to 4 weeks. The good news: We are good
at this because we do FAR more parathyroid operations than anybody
else in the world... and we'll get lots more experience before its
your turn. The bad news: there are other parathyroid patients in
front of you and you will need to wait until its your turn.
Remember, we'll do more parathyroid operations during the month you
have to wait for your surgery than almost any other surgeon will do
in several lifetimes. Also remember, this is not a cancerous tumor, and you've
already had this disease for years... Yep, almost all patients have
been growing a parathyroid tumor in their neck for at least 4-5 years before
somebody figures it out. There are some exceptions to getting in
sooner; we save a few spots on our schedule for patients with
calcium levels above 12 since this can be a dangerous situation.
IMPORTANT: Throughout this site we talk about Dr Norman,
Dr Politz, and Dr Lopez in the same sentence. This is because
at least two surgeons take part in the care of almost all patients, although only
one of them will call you to discuss your case on the phone. You
will spend time with two of our surgeons at the hospital prior
to your operation. Virtually every patient has two of our surgeons
participating in their operation. Thus patients get the benefit of
having two extremely experienced surgeons. We'd venture to say,
there is nothing in parathyroid disease that we have not
seen--several times! Some patients will have Dr Lopez call them on
the phone for their consultation, while others will have Dr Norman
or Dr Politz call them. However, two doctors will
spend time with you at the hospital, and will perform your operation
as a team. Final
clarification: The phone consultation is by one of three doctors, but the surgery is performed by
two surgeons together. Everybody spends time with two of our
surgeons in person prior to the operation.
Patients from Other Countries / and Patients Without
Insurance
We operate on several patients from Canada every
week, as well as patients from other countries almost weekly. The total
cost if you do not have insurance and must pay for the operation out
of pocket is $11,250. This covers all consultations (includes the
consultation fee),
chart prep, surgeon, anesthesia, anesthesiologist, x-ray, hospital,
laboratory, operating room, operating room team, and recovery room.
Everything except travel and hotel. This is cheap! Remember, this is
not $11,250 for the surgeons... this is for everything. |
THIS IS HOW YOU BECOME A
PATIENT OF THE NORMAN PARATHYROID CENTER:
NOTE: We prefer email communication whenever possible.
 Fill
out the two online forms. These forms are SECURE
and are encrypted for your safety (nobody can see your
information).
Our Patient
History Form will ask you the most important questions about your
parathyroid disease. Just fill it out and hit the 'submit' button.
Our
Insurance
Form will give us all the information we need to check and
make sure your insurance will pay for the operation (not the
consultation). We take most insurance types for the operation; Barbara
and Michelle will know how much (if anything) you will have to pay out
of pocket for the operation (co-pays and deductibles). Remember, it will be your responsibility
for the consultation fee which is not covered by insurance.
 Contact
your doctor's office and have them fax your records
to us, specifically your calcium levels, PTH levels, bone scans, office
notes, etc. This is usually the slowest part of the process. Our fax number is: 813-972-0077.
Click Here to PRINT a REQUEST FOR MEDICAL
INFORMATION FORM. Print this form, fill it out, and fax it to each
of your doctor's offices that have anything to do with your
calcium or parathyroid issues. Printing and sending this form to your
doctors is the
easiest way to get your records to us. Call them on the phone about a week
later to follow up.
 Jayme
or Jodie will contact you within a
day or two after we receive these forms and tell you what else is
needed. They will email you when we get the information from your
doctors, and will email you again when your chart is completed and given
to one of our experts doctors. You can expect several emails from us keeping you informed as your
chart makes it way through our system.
 Get ready for
your phone consultation with one of our surgeons. One of them will call
you to discuss your hyperparathyroidism and answer any questions you may have.
Remember, you will also spend time with two of our surgeons the morning of your
operation.
 Book your
operation with our office. After you have your phone consultation,
the doctor will tell you to call Marisol to schedule your operation
(813-972-0000). Have your calendar with you when you call. You do not need
Dr Norman as your surgeon, he is not "better" than Dr Politz or
Lopez.
 Make your travel
arrangements. There is a lot more information about this on the bottom of
this page that tells how long you stay in Tampa, when to come, when you
can travel home, etc. We have hotels that host
most of our patients.
 Watch some of our
videos so you understand more about parathyroid disease and how this small
tumor affects many parts of your body. Watch the video of
our most recent operation, or watch our first, more
formal operation.
Watch the video that gives a Tour of the Parathyroid Center at Tampa
General Hospital so you can see where you are going and meet some of the
people who will take care of you. See all our videos at Parathyroid.TV.
You can call us on the phone if you need to. Do this only if absolutely
necessary, or you are a doctor's office. Our office hours for new
patients are 9:00 am to 4:00 pm EST Monday through Friday.
During all other hours you can leave a message and we will return your
call. Did we mention that we prefer email communication and if you
call we won't be able to help too much until we see your history form
and your labs? Please do not call us with a generic question about
parathyroid disease or to see if you can be a patient of ours.
If you have parathyroid disease, you can be a patient of ours!
Office Phone Number: 813.972.0000
Office Fax Number: 813.972.0077
Address for sending items via Federal Express
/ UPS / US Mail:
Office Address:
Norman Parathyroid Center
2400 Cypress Glen Drive
Wesley Chapel, FL 33544 |
Remember, the operations are performed at the new Parathyroid
Center at Tampa General Hospital not at our office. Out of
town patients do not come to the office, but meet the doctors at
the hospital.
|
All patients that travel to Tampa for parathyroid surgery will get a phone call
from either Dr Norman, Dr Politz, or Dr Lopez and this call will
come after they can review all of your complete medical information
and before you make any travel arrangements. A complete chart includes:
| A completed History
Form. This is a SECURE form. |
| A completed Insurance
Form. This is a SECURE form. |
| All labs received (via fax or mail) from your doctors. (fax
= 813-972-0077) |
|
What We Need to Accomplish Prior to Your
Minimal Parathyroid Surgery
-
Remember, a Minimally Invasive Radioguided
Parathyroid operation (MIRP) can be
performed on ALL patients with parathyroid disease. If you do not
have a scan yet, do NOT get one. If your scan is negative, we still do
mini parathyroid surgery. Do not let people tell you that you can't
have mini-parathyroid surgery because your scan is negative. It may be
true for them, but they didn't invent the operation. Look folks, far
too much emphasis is put on the scan. STOP GETTING SCANS! Scans are
usually WRONG!
Use email whenever you can when communicating with Dr. Norman's
office.
-
JODIE: is the New Patient Coordinator:
Chart Preparation and Communication with Doctor's Offices. She will help collect
information from your doctors and provide it to Jayme who is in charge
of organizing your information and charting all your calcium and PTH
levels into a format that allows us to compare you to thousands of people
who have come before you. These ladies work together to organizing your
chart--including your History
Form, your Insurance
Form, and the records we get from your doctor(s). This chart
will also include a patient check list and disease profile for you. Our
online forms are secure and encrypted to become extremely private;
they cannot be seen by any hackers or prying eyes. We use an outside
security company to host these secure forms and the secure
"certificate" can be seen on these forms. Fill out these
forms with complete trust that your information will remain private
using the most modern technology available. Read more about your
financial responsibilities on our ABN form...
you will be required to check the box that says you read this when you
fill out the online forms.
Parathyroid Surgery does not have to be
complicated!
-
We require the History and Insurance forms to be
filled out for all patients, so as soon as you fill them out, Jodie or
Jayme will email you to tell you that your forms have arrived and they
will remind you of the other information we need (x-rays, lab
reports, etc). Once all of your clinical information is put together,
Jodie or Jayme will email you a second time and tell you that
the chart has been completed and was given to one of our doctors for
review. It will usually take a couple of days to one week for one of
our two expert doctors to review your chart (x-rays, etc) and go over
your case in detail and then call you on the phone to discuss your
parathyroid problem. They will tell you what they think the best
options are. Every patient who has to travel to get to Tampa will get
a personal phone call from one of our three experts. Make sure you
give us your correct phone numbers. Because of our volume, the doctors
call patients 7 days a week. They will make calls as early as 6:00 am
or as late as 10:30 pm -- only if you want them to. At the bottom of
the History form it will ask you if it is ok for them to call you
early in the am or late at night. If not, just say no and they will
call during regular hours.
Parathyroid surgery at the Norman Parathyroid
surgery clinic.
-
MICHELLE:
Verification of Insurance, Co-Pays and Deductibles. When
your chart to one of our doctors for their review and phone consultation, they will
also give your information to Michelle who will work on your
insurance coverage and verification. If you are in our system and
have filled out our secure Insurance Form, then you can email Michelle
questions you may have about insurance coverage email
Michelle. Trust us... this is very simple for almost all patients,
so do NOT think you need to email her. If there is a problem, you will
hear from us. Please know, all aspects of this operation are covered
by insurance just like any other surgeons' office, with the exception
of the consultation fee which is not covered by insurance. We take
Medicare, Cigna, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Humana, Aetna, and LOTS of
others.
Parathyroid surgery at the Norman Parathyroid
surgery clinic.
-
MARISOL: Surgery
Scheduling. After your phone consultation with one of
our surgeons, you will be instructed to contact Marisol
via
email, or by direct phone call to the office
(813-972-0000). Marisol will help you choose a day for the operation
and help coordinate the entire visit once things have progressed to
this point. Do not call her to see what our schedule is, our schedule is always booked solid for about
3-5 weeks--always. (note... special cases and severe parathyroid disease
will always get moved to the front of the line... but these cases are
not very common). Have your calendar available when you call.
-
Book
Your Hotel. We work with a handful of hotels in
the area, but most closely with the two listed on our Hotel Page.
Watch the Mini Parathyroid Movie...
-
Watch the
Movies. We have two different movies of this operation online and you should watch
both of them. There is no
blood. It will help you understand where the incision is, and what
your Band-Aid looks like. You will see just how small and quick this
operation is. On the older and more formal video, Dr Norman gives a lecture for 15 minutes that
is very informative. Watch
this movie! The newer
movie is only 13 minutes long and is very educational.
-
Watch
the Video Tour of the Parathyroid Center at Tampa General
Hospital. See where you will valet park and meet the folks who will
take care of you.
-
Watch
the Movie of Michelle and Kelly answering some commonly asked
questions.
-
Watch
the Video of Dr Norman chatting with a patient prior to their
operation. Our surgeons work in pairs, so one of them will spend time
with you discussing calcium issues, when to shower and that kind of
stuff, while the other will spend time chatting about your specific
problems.
.
-
Watch the movie of Dr Norman chatting
with a man about his negative
sestamibi scan that his endocrinologist got--it delayed his
operation 4 years causing this man to have a heart attack, kidney
stones, and other bad things. Don't get scans!
-
Look at our map
of where all our patients come from. We've operated on your neighbors!
What we need from you.
In
order for us to confirm that you do have parathyroid disease
(hyperparathyroidism) and that an operation is in your best interest (very
high chance of cure + very low chance of complications = successful
surgery), then we need some of your medical records sent to us. This
shouldn't be too hard and usually can be done by you over the phone. Most
of this cannot legally be done by us.
-
Send us a copy of all your lab work (and
doctor's notes). USE THIS FORM TO SPEED UP THE
PROCESS. Print this form and take it or fax it to your
doctor's office. Specifically we want to see what your calcium level is currently and
what it was in the recent past (and distant past if available). The
more calcium levels we have the better! We also need to know what your
parathyroid hormone is currently and in the past, and again, the more
we have the better...(but we will settle for just one or two parathyroid
hormone levels if they show what is expected). Other labs will
be helpful as well, so send them also... don't just send the
calcium and parathyroid hormone levels. We want a good, safe outcome,
so we need to know all of your important medical history. The doctor (or doctors) which has been working up your parathyroid
problem will have "clinic notes" about you where he/she has
been noting the parathyroid problem and other problems you may have as
well. Use the fax or mail addresses
below. Again, its better to send us too much than to send us only part
of the picture. Getting your doctor's office to
send your information to us is usually the slowest part of this entire
process.
Parathyroid surgery at the Norman Parathyroid
surgery clinic.
-
Do NOT send us a copy of your parathyroid sestamibi
scan. The vast majority of scans are wrong, so we don't want
to see yours. If you had one that said the tumor was in your chest, we may want to see it.
To do this, go to (or call) the hospital or clinic where you had the scan, and
request that it be sent to us. But for the rest of you, if you had a
scan that was read as "positive", we do NOT want to see it.
If they said it was negative, we do NOT want to see it. If
you haven't had a scan yet, do NOT get one. It will be a waste of time
and will be repeated here 30 minutes before you go to the operating
room. If you had a thyroid ultrasound test, do NOT send it; we
don't think ultrasounds are worthwhile and we will not look at it. If you don't have one, please do NOT get
one... it is not necessary to have these scans. If you had a "4-D CT scan" or a
"fusion Sestamibi scan" then please don't bother sending it
to us. This is new technology that is usually worthless and we will not
look at it. Do not get one of these. Better
yet, don't get ANY scans! REMEMBER: If your scan is NOT positive
you will still be able to have mini-parathyroid surgery with us. Do
not give up on mini-parathyroid surgery because you have a negative
scan. We are the only doctors in the world that do mini parathyroid
surgery on 100% of patients, and the only ones that do mini surgery
when your scan is negative. We do NOT require that you have a
scan before you come here. We prefer that you do NOT have a scan prior
to coming here. We will say this
one more time: Do not get a scan if you are coming here. It won't help
and we don't need it. It will waste your time and money. STOP GETTING
SCANS!
Parathyroid surgery at the Norman Parathyroid
surgery clinic.
-
Write a brief clinical history of yourself.
The is best done after you fill out the Secure History and
Insurance forms. Tell us your problems in your own words and correlate them to
what your doctor's have told you and the results of your lab tests.
Give us a picture of you're overall health as well as your parathyroid
problems. This can be emailed
to Kelly.
Parathyroid surgery at the Norman Parathyroid
surgery clinic. calcium problem.
-
 Make
a list of your current medications. We will have you insert
this list into our online form. Its easy! Remember, our forms are
completely secure.
Parathyroid disease and parathyroid
problems treated by parathyroid s
-
Insurance coverage will be addressed
by Michelle (or Barbara). We take most types of insurance, including
Medicare. Since parathyroid surgery is essentially always an
outpatient procedure when performed by our doctors, most insurances
don't require pre-authorization. Medicare does not require
pre-authorization, nor does it require a referral from an
endocrinologist. Same for Aetna, Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Humana,
Cigna, and most others. If you have a rare insurance that we don't take, we
will write you a "Letter of Medical Necessity" that you can
submit to obtain 'out of network' coverage. We have a SECURE Online
Insurance Form that makes the insurance submission and
verification process easy. When you submit this form, Michelle will
receive it and confirm your eligibility with your insurance company.
Typically this is all you need to do. Insurance questions can
be addressed via email to michelle@parathyroid.com.
Please do not send insurance questions to Kelly, she is a nurse. Also,
do not email generic insurance questions to Michelle. Read more
about your financial responsibilities on our ABN
form... you will be required to check the box that says you
read this when you fill out the online forms. Also, remember that the
insurance will pay for the operation--it does not pay for the
consultation. The consultation will be your responsibility as
described above.
Parathyroid disease and parathyroid
problems treated by parathyroid s
-
Pick a day for the procedure and then make
travel arrangements. Marisol will help you decide
which day will be best for you to come to Tampa and will book your
operation at that time. Drs Norman, Politz, and Lopez operate together
as a team of two on all
patients and typically perform 12-13 parathyroid operations every Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (not Fridays). You will need to arrive in Tampa the afternoon
before the operation and can leave the morning after (if you are
traveling by car you can go home immediately after leaving the
hospital). We have arrangements with several local
hotels where you can stay the night before and after. Usually it
is best if you get into town the afternoon or evening prior to the
operation. All pre-registration will take place over the telephone
and no pre-op testing is required.
You do not come by the clinic or the hospital ahead of time. You
will come to the hospital early in the morning of the operation. We
have our own center at the hospital where you will be surrounded by
people with the same problem as you. You
will get checked in, spend time with several of our doctors discussing your case, get a sestamibi scan, review the scan with
one of the doctors, meet the rest of the operating team, have the
quick parathyroid operation, go to the recovery room for about 1.5 hours and then go
home. That's it. If you are the first or second case of the
day, you can expect to be out of the hospital on your way home by
about 9:30 am. If you are the third or fourth case of the day, you can
expect to be out of the hospital on your way home by about 10:30 am.
Etc. We perform roughly 2 operations per hour.
.
oid disease and parathyroid problems treated by pa
-
The morning of the procedure you will
get a high resolution parathyroid sestamibi
scan. We do far more of these scans than anyone in the world, and
we feel very confident in saying we are the best in the world at this
scan. This scan will provide a good 3-dimensional view of where your
parathyroid tumor is most likely located (more importantly, it shows
us where it is NOT located). It also makes the
parathyroid tumor radioactive for a few hours so we can use our probe
to find the darn thing! This scan only takes between 10 and 20 minutes
to complete (it doesn't take us several hours like it does at other
places). All we use the scan for is to make sure the tumor is not in
your chest, and to make sure you don't have a big thyroid problem. We
do NOT use the scan to find the tumor. NOTE: Two
of our surgeons do the parathyroid operations together and we
never use residents who are learning to operate. Again, we don't have
residents doing the operations. We don't use resident
anesthesiologists either. There is nobody "learning" on
your operation. This is very important to you. Have you
watched the movie yet?
Parathyroid disease and parathyroid
problems treated by
-
Staying in town after the procedure.
If you want to stay in a hotel the night of the procedure, that is ok
and is what almost everybody who lives outside Florida does (if they
don't have family or friends in the central Florida area). Important!
As discussed in #7 above, The Norman Parathyroid Center has special
deals with several local
hotels which are fairly close by and quite inexpensive. It is RARE
for anybody to spend more than one night in Tampa after the
operation... and virtually nobody spends the night IN the hospital
after a parathyroid operation--we haven't done that for over 12 years. (NOTE:
If you have not read the "Testimonial
Page" yet, please do so. Bottom line: People traveling by car
can make plans to get in the car about 1.5 hours after the operation
and head on home. People traveling by airplane should spend the night
of the operation in a Tampa (or Orlando area) hotel and fly home the
following day.
Parathyroid Surgery. Parathyroid operation.
Parathyroid surgery. Parathyroid operation.
-
What if I have problems? Who do I call?
All of our patients get a detailed sheet of postoperative
instructions. All of our patients get a bottle of calcium pills that they
are take beginning the night of surgery. All patients get our doctor's home phone number and their cell phone numbers--and
are instructed to call them directly if they have any problems. One of
our doctors will call every patient the evening of the operation to
make sure you understand what was found and to answer any more
questions that you may have. Your doctors will get a copy of the
operative report and the pathology report within several days. All of
your doctors will also get a personal letter from our surgeons describing what was found, what was done, and what will likely be your
calcium requirement for years to come (based on their experience with
thousands of similar patients and the results of your bone density
scans). All your doctors will get a photograph of your tumor with
stickers on it describing the amount of hormone being produced by the
tumor in the operating room and the low amount of hormone in your blood prior to going home.
We are extremely organized and extremely good at communicating with
all of your doctors. The bottom line is this: We have done so many of these
operations that it has become a very simple out-patient procedure. We
have made the complex quite simple.
Parathyroid Surgery. Parathyroid operation.
Parathyroid surgery. Parathyroid operation.
-
When can I drive or fly home? When can I go back to
work? Virtually all patients are sent home about 1 to 2
hours after their parathyroid operation. We have not had a parathyroid
patient spend the night in the hospital in several years (more than
13,500 patients have gone home within 2.5 hours--it's that simple).
People who travel by car will usually travel home when they are
released (they should not drive for 24 hours, but they can be a
passenger). We prefer patients who are flying to wait until the
morning after the operation to travel by plane. As soon as you leave
the hospital you can eat anything you like... we encourage you to go
out to dinner and celebrate the first day of your new and improved
life! You will be given a bottle of calcium pills and instructions on how
often to take them. You will be taking Advil (Motrin, Ibuprofen) for
pain--that's it--so bring some with you if you like. You can go back
to work the day after the surgery, although some people take that day
off too. It is very rare for somebody to require more than 24 hours to
recover. The day after surgery you will have zero restrictions. Do
what you want. You may have a sore throat, but you can do
whatever you like (golf, exercise, etc).
Parathyroid surgery. expertise.
-
Follow Up. You do not come back to
Tampa. You simply need to be seen by one of your regular doctors about
two months after the operation, primarily to get
your blood tested to measure your calcium and PTH levels. We provide
you with the blood slip that you use to get the blood testing done in
your home town about 2 months after the operation; we will forward
those results to all your doctors. You see
him/her about 1-2 weeks after you get your blood drawn. We will
communicate this with your physician at the time of your operation. This
visit with your doctor is simple since there are no stitches to remove
(you just peel off your Band-Aid in one week's time). All the stitches
we use dissolve in about 1 month's time. When you see your doctor,
he/she will have received everything from us weeks earlier, all
organized, photographed, and simple to interpret. Remember, a
small quick operation is not any good if we have problems...the number
one goal is SAFETY...nothing else is more important. You do not
have to worry about coming to Tampa for surgery and then having a
problem with nobody to take care of you. If this happened, we'd be out
of business years ago. You have all our doctor's home phone numbers
and cell phone numbers. We will be there for you.
 Click
here to read the stories of over 1000 people who had parathyroid
surgery at the Norman Parathyroid Center.
It is also highly
recommended that you watch the most
recent video, and our
first, more formal video of a mini-parathyroid operation by Dr Norman, which includes
a short lecture so you can know more about what to expect from your
mini-parathyroid surgery with us. Many people also enjoy watching the
video
tour of the Parathyroid Center and meeting the folks who will take
care of you. The "tour" video shows you how to get to the
hospital and where to park.
Speed...
Why do we keep bringing up the quickness of our parathyroid operations? First of all... quick is dumb if it's not successful.
The most important issue is safety, so always look at a surgeon's
complication rates and success rates. If success rates are very high
and complication rates are very low, then speed is the next most
important factor. Speed is a function of repetition and competence.
Quick operations have less dissection which means less pain and less
bleeding. Less dissection decreases the potential for complications
and damage to other neck structures like nerves. Quick operations
require less anesthesia. People get much less sick and are able to
get on with their lives very quickly after a 16-20 minute operation.
Quick operations are tolerated by people very well. The best
surgeons are often the quickest... but not always! When choosing
your surgeon--regardless of who it is--you must always fall back on
what is most important... success rates and complication rates. You
will usually see that the best and most experienced surgeons have all three: Very High
Success Rates, Extremely Few Complications, and Speed.
Note, we can't operate on everybody
who has a parathyroid problem. But, if this was an easy operation to
perform we wouldn't do 12 times the amount of operations that Mayo
Clinic does in a year, or 15 times more than Duke University, Johns Hopkins and Harvard
do in a year--- you get the picture. That doesn't mean that there
aren't great surgeons at these institutions, it simply means that
you need to pick your surgeon wisely--one that performs parathyroid
surgery at least several times per week. If parathyroid surgery was
easy for every surgeon to perform, we wouldn't be in business
because nobody would have the need to travel across the country to
have us do their operation. If parathyroid surgery were easy, surgeons from dozens
of major universities from around the US wouldn't come here for us
to remove their tumor--or the tumor from their wife. Yet we operate
on a surgeon every week and a doctor several times per week.
However, parathyroid surgery is easy if you do it a dozen times every day.
Parathyroid surgery is NOT easy if you do it once every couple of
weeks. Dr Norman has done over 14,500 parathyroid operations, and Dr
Politz over 10,000. Dr Lopez is right behind. They work together so you have the
three most
experienced parathyroid surgeons in the world. We can't do everybody's
operation, but please, be wise and pick a surgeon that does
parathyroid surgery at least once per week. When you talk to one of
our doctors, they will invariably tell you: "Don't make this
hard, it is not hard. This is easy!". It is easy for us. This
is all we do. Check out our
MAP, it shows where our patients come from. Some of them live
within a few blocks of you!
Thyroid Nodules.
Often parathyroid patients will
need a part of their thyroid removed during their thyroid operation (about
22% of our past 14,000 patients had a thyroid problem that we addressed
with some form of thyroid nodule removal during their parathyroid
operation). Nearly 85% of patients with a parathyroid tumor will also have
a thyroid nodule--it is very common to have thyroid nodules (heck our
surgeons have thyroid nodules themselves!). Most thyroid nodules are ho-hum, benign,
normal lumps and bumps that we all get as we get older. Most thyroid
nodules should be left alone. We look at every patient's thyroid gland (Dr
Norman has seen more thyroid glands than any other person in the world--he
sees 13 of them every day).
If a thyroid nodule is worrisome in any way and needs to be removed, then
we remove it. It is NOT A BIG DEAL. Almost all patients that require the removal of a thyroid
nodule or even an entire thyroid lobe (one half of the thyroid) will go home within 2.5 hours.
Patients with thyroid problems in addition to parathyroid problems are not
treated differently from parathyroid patients who do not have thyroid
problems... same anesthesia, same incision, etc. We remove thyroid nodules
and thyroid masses 2-5 times per day in patients that have thyroid nodules in
addition to their parathyroid tumor. It usually adds about 2-5 minutes to
the operation. Thus, if you are told "you cannot have
mini-parathyroid surgery because you have a thyroid nodule", you can
tell that doctor: "nonsense!" We do this all day long, every
day. This simply depends on the skill and experience of the surgeon. Occasionally we will have a patient spend the night if we
have to remove a very large thyroid goiter during the parathyroid
operation (about 1 in 700 patients spends the night in the hospital). Patients over 250 pounds will
sometimes need an incision about 1.5 inches long. However, almost all
patients that have a thyroid nodule can have their thyroid nodule removed
at the time of their mini-parathyroid operation--still through a 1-inch
incision, still with a near 100% cure rate, still expecting to go home in
2 hours, and still without the need for general endotracheal anesthesia. The bottom line is
safety... not speed... and not statistics. All patients are treated as
individuals and get personalized care that is tailored to their specific
problem and their overall health. Nobody has seen more of this stuff than
us. Nobody has seen more thyroid nodules than us... we deal with thyroid
nodules all day long! One final note: we do not have a 100% cure rate, but
there is no question that our cure rate is the highest in the world.
Note that we've done some 11,000 more parathyroid operations since
our first video... we're even better at it now!
That's why we made the second
video... its different and less formal. Probably the better video.
We really like our patients to watch
these movies... They answer a lot of questions.
These are bloodless operations. Simple,
clean, no blood, very small incision, lots of information.
| Read what our patients say about their
parathyroid surgery experience: Click Here |
| Local Hotels that most of our patients stay at (Discount
rates, 0.5 miles away): Click
Here |
| More about our center: Click Here |
| See our MAP of where all
our patients come from. Some are probably your neighbors! |
This page was last updated: 12/31/2011
Directions and Video to get to the
hospital for your operation:
For driving directions to the Parathyroid
Center at Tampa General Hospital click
here.
For a Map of how to get to the Parathyroid Center at Tampa General
Hospital click
here.
BEST: For Video
Tour of how to drive and where to park when you come for your
operation click
here.
|
