As costs continue to be deferred onto the patient, it’s no surprise that medical tourism has become more popular. If you have worked in the medical community or have close friends that talk about their experiences, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of someone who travelled out of the country for a surgery or in vitro fertilization. Sometimes, it just makes sense to travel to save money on your medical needs.
In fact, we recommend medical tourism to a degree when it comes to spine surgery. We’re not saying you should book a flight to Germany for your spinal fusion procedure, but you also shouldn’t just choose the closest in-network surgeon for your procedure. Below, we explain why you should consider travelling to have your spine surgery completed.
Traveling For Spine Surgery
When we say you should consider traveling for spine surgery, we don’t typically mean that you should leave the country. Instead, we mean you should make the trip to a qualified, experienced and trustworthy surgeon. Dr. Sinicropi checks all those boxes, but we implore you to find a surgeon that fits that criteria instead of just settling for a general surgeon a couple miles from home. Here’s why:
- It’s Your Health, It’s Not A Toaster – Your health is one of the few things in life that you should always seek out the best for. If you go with the wrong surgeon, it can have lifelong consequences. If you pick out the wrong toaster, you’re out $20-$30, and it’s not that big of a deal. You can go with what’s available or what’s cheapest for some decisions in life, but surgery isn’t one of them. Resolve to be willing to travel to receive the best care, because you can’t really put a price on your health.
- Better Outcomes – If you’re willing to travel, you’re more likely to be able to find a specialist who has decades of experience treating the exact same condition you’re dealing with. While every patient is different, you want a surgeon who has seen it all and treated it all. If you’re willing to travel for surgery, odds are you’ll end up in front of a more experienced surgeon who is better equipped to help.
- Better Technology – Most of us don’t have a world class spine surgery facility in our backyard, so we have to be willing to travel if we want to have access to the best technology and equipment. As we’ve mentioned before, your health is extremely important, so you want surgeons who have access to the best diagnostic and procedural equipment to ensure everything goes as expected.
- Traveling Is Easier – One of the bright spots of the COVID-19 pandemic is that many facilities improved their virtual care options. If you want to travel for care, it’s only going to be easier to find the right surgeon for you because of your telemedicine options. Instead of traveling to see multiple specialists all over the state, you can usually set up virtual appointments to save time and money when you’re in the early stages of deciding who to go with for your spine care. We offer virtual consultations at our clinic!
- You Deserve The Best – Finally, you deserve to have the best and the brightest minds performing your surgery. Not only does this help with your outcomes, but it can help to provide you with peace of mind knowing that you’re in the best hands possible. This peace of mind can actually have real benefits for your physical recovery. You owe it to yourself to have your operation performed by one of the industry’s best.
For more information, or to see how we believe we can check all the above boxes for your care, reach out to Dr. Sinicropi and his office today.
