Getting Started

Dr. Hargroder and his staff are committed to making your experience as pleasant and hassle free as possible. We strive to provide outstanding patient care, as well as support and assistance before and after surgery in order to achieve exceptional short term and long term results. We have found that the best way to ensure excellent results is to provide excellent pre-operative education and preparation. The pre-operative process is fairly extensive, but you will find that when you are ready to schedule your surgery date, very few questions will have been left unanswered.

• We are committed to excellence in pre-op and post-op education and quality patient care.
• We want you and your family to feel comfortable with the therapeutic decision you have made.
• We want to select the best patient candidates for laparoscopic surgical treatment.
• We want to help long distance and local patients get the best possible patient care.
• We want to educate and inform the local and referring medical physicians about our surgical procedure and the postoperative follow up and care that will be required.

Take The First Step

Continue your journey by:

• Reading the selection guidelines.
• Join the mailing list.
• Complete patient registration form.
• Complete patient education and reading material.
• Get support letter and exam from your referring doctor.
• Write your patient letter.
• Get psychological evaluation.
• Contact 10 previous patients.
• Provide photographs of yourself.
• Have your family write a detailed support letter.
• Preoperative clinic visit.
• Read and complete consent form.

After these steps are completed, you can be scheduled for surgery usually within one to two weeks. There is no additional waiting period once you have been approved for surgery. More information about the process, procedure, other types of Bariatric Surgery and other subjects can be found in the patient education manual.