San Mateo


FALL INTO THE GAP!

The idea: Occasional gaps in our operating room schedule allow us to offer you an opportunity: preplanning for a ‘last minute’ notification of your surgery date & time in exchange for significant price reduction. Your scheduling flexibility fills our GAP to your financial benefit.

What’s a ‘GAP’?: A GAP is a block of unused time created in the operating room schedule when a regulary scheduled patient postpones surgery ‘at the last minute’. The operating room staff is already scheduled. The staff and Dr. Pertsch would rather do what they love most: help people feel better about themselves with surgery than catch up on paper work and meetings.

Gaps can appear for a variety of reasons despite a very busy office schedule:

* illness causes postponed surgery
* unexpected demands at work have patients postpone surgery
* a ‘significant other’ is informed about the procedure at the last minute and intervenes
* surgery date that all patients have inexplicably just not chosen

On a national average GAP situations develop in upwards of 13% of scheduled cosmetic surgeries. If a doctor in your area does not offer this opportunity they will probably consider it if you bring this option to their attention.

A GAP is preowned first class operating room time…

not second class surgery: Our GAP patients get the same information, go through all the same preoperative, postoperative , and intra-operative care as our regular patients. Dr. Pertsch may not even be aware of your ‘GAP’ arrangement.

You will need to meet with Dr. Pertsch in advance. Although our internet patients are a savvy group there will be much Dr. Pertsch wants to be sure you understand, not to mention check your overall health, etc. Importantly : Be sure to stop taking aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) and all Vitamin E (even the small amount in multivitamins). Stop smoking, not even one cigarette, especially before Faceneck lift, rhinoplasty, breast reconstruction, and abdominoplasty (tummy tuck) surgery.

You go through all the usual procedures at the office except a date for your procedure is not set: i.e..:

You call to schedule an initial paid $60 ~30 minute consultation to see videotapes on the procedure, meet Dr. Pertsch, discuss your concerns and goals, see before and after slide photo presentations of other patients, a brief exam, and discussion of surgical options and costs.

After deciding to go forward with the procedure a paid $400 preoperative visit is scheduled. This preoperative 1 hour + appointment is spent with Dr. Pertsch and his nurse to review your general health, all the specifics to do before and after for the best results, mention of all things to expect along with risks and complications, and detailed operative planning. The paid initial and preoperative amounts are counted toward the surgery cost. Financial arrangements are completed at this time. GAP patients typically save between 10 to 15% off the full amount. You are now all ready for your procedure.

Now, the first and only logistical difference from our regular patients: the surgery date is not scheduled.

You’ll wait for a GAP to develop.Thus you may be contacted Friday or Monday for a surgery date 4 to 7 days later, or contacted with even less notice. If this time is not acceptable we will contact other GAP patients. In general GAPs are offered to patients waiting on a first come, first serve basis. Occasionally, a patient requiring a similar amount of operating room time to the GAP will be offered out of turn. GAPS cannot be predicted by the staff. If the sense of anticipation or uncertainty is too much you may convert to a regular patient.

At any time a GAP patient may convert back to a regular patient and schedule a date for their procedure. The difference in cost would be addressed at the time of scheduling.

A GAP is not cosmetic surgery performed urgently or hastily…

without forethought. All the usual preoperative appointments and information will be thoroughly reviewed before you are ready for surgery. In fact, you will generally have more time to consider your choices as it may take some time for a GAP to appear in the schedule.

We do sometimes perform well considered surgery a short time after initial meeting a patient. These are regularly scheduled patients and rarely fall into the GAP category.

To take advantage of this ‘GAP’ opportunity please call and come in for a consultation.

The next gap: cannot be predicted

Please contact Alley at 650-342-1511 if this opportunity is of interest to you.

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