Questions and Answers for US Residents Considering Private Treatment in Canada
False Creek Surgical Centre/ Advanced Diagnostic Facility and Urgent Care Centre
Disclaimer: Unfortunately we cannot offer services to residents of New York, Kansas, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama at this time.
Some facts about our Facility:
- Situated in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia
- Established 12 years ago.
- Multispecialty
- 4 operating rooms
- 10 bed urgent care centre
- Most advanced diagnostic imaging centre in Canada
- 13 overnight stay room
- This 20 000 sqft facility is situated in walking distance from the 2010 Olympic village
- Treat over 4000 patients annually.
- Many of our surgeons and physicians are affiliated with the Vancouver General Hospital teaching centre.
Who are the team of Surgeons?
Dr. Mark Godley is the Medical Director, an Anesthesiologist, and through the years of working in the Canadian public healthcare system has had the opportunity to choose some of Canada most renowned surgeons to work in the centre that he pioneered.
Why do we think it would benefit a US resident to come to the False Creek Surgical Center in Vancouver rather than go to a hospital or surgical center in your area for surgery?
Economics: For 6 months we have seen a rapid decline in the value of the Canadian dollar, going from par to 79 cents US. This means the care we provide is automatically discounted by more than 20%. Also Canada’s healthcare system has always been cheaper. Our nurses and doctors get paid less for providing the same high quality care that you receive in the US. Canadian doctors have to make a living by providing high volume fee for service care. Naturally this means that services we can provide to US residents are going to be a lot cheaper but still of that highest US standard.
Many US citizens are not insured and often turn to medical tourism in order to get access to cheaper healthcare. But why travel miles on a stuffed airplane to places like India, Mexico, Brazil or Costa Rica which are unfamiliar environments, when you can get in your car or a short plane ride and receive healthcare that is of exceptional quality and standard at our state of the art private hospital.
For Washington, Oregon or California state residents, we estimate that if you are non-insured you can save 50% of the costs by simply driving across the border to our centre for your healthcare needs and you will have the same patient rights as if you were in Washington , Oregon or California (the care you receive will be exceptional).
For Insured residents it may work out even better because all you are responsible for is your IN NETWORK financial obligations to your insurance company. The exchange rate allows us to cover the associated costs you would have to incur for out of network healthcare services such as deductibles, co-payments etc.
For Washington state residents, we even cover the costs of travel, hotel accommodation, meals etc. There will be simply speaking no “out of pocket expenses."
How soon can a patient get in and have surgery?
Within days! Don’t wait.
We have a team of patient care coordinators in every field of medicine that will gather all your current medical records if you know the procedure you need, then we get one of our board certified specialists to take a look at your clinical findings before you come and see us. Then we have an idea of your healthcare needs.
By doing this we can often accomplish consultation, laboratory tests, diagnostic imaging such as MRI or CT and your surgery all within one day. All this is done within our facility. A truly Canadian version of the Mayo Clinic. This is truly a one stop patient centric approach to healthcare delivery. We can also use digital images and secure video links to provide you with information prior to your arrival.
What about False Creek Surgical Centers credibility?
We meet the highest Canadian healthcare standards and are fully accredited with the most important national body, Accreditation Canada. We are also accredited by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia. The body that protects and guides all physician services in British Columbia.
All our physicians are specialists with board certification in Canada and/or the US.
We have been in Business for more than 10 years and our scope of services continue to grow each year. Over ten years we have grown from an Ambulatory Surgery Centre to a full private hospital.
Unlike patients who have travelled abroad for surgical care and have had no patient rights to fall back on when the care that has been delivered is marginal we are open to the same laws that govern US states and British Columbia when it comes to patient accountability.
What are the most common procedures that are performed in the False Creek Hospital?
Muscular Skeletal is the most common.
The rotator cuff and other arthroscopic joint surgeries of the knee, shoulder wrist and ankle. Our surgeons are sub-specialized
in their fields. We have a dedicated ankle surgeon, shoulder surgeon. Because Canada has a relative shortage of highly trained specialists our specialists have operated on many more patients than a comparable surgeon in the US. As the saying goes the more you practice the better you get—so that makes them highly experienced and accomplished in their fields.
Back and Neck Surgery
Dr Richard Chan, one of our neurosurgeons performs more than 300 disc decompression surgeries each year in our centre.
An independent study performed by the Work Safe British Columbia board noted that his success rate was over 98% for lower back surgery.
Sinus Surgery
We also specialize in some more advanced procedures such as Computer assisted Sinus Surgery. Dr Amin Javer, a world authority and in this field of medicine runs an international fellowship training program. Again, the volume of procedures and high success rates speak to why patients come from all over the world to False Creek Surgical Center for the procedure.
Gall Bladder and Liver Procedure
One of Canada’s leading Liver transplant surgeons Dr Charles Scudamore performs cholecystomy or gall bladder removal surgery at the centre however the more advanced procedures he performs for palliation is radiofrequency ablation of liver tumors for people with metastatic spread of cancer to the liver.
Lap-Band Surgical Weight Loss for people less than 400 pounds
I have noticed many adverts in BC for weight loss surgery in Washington. We provide this service in BC with a saving equivalent of $3500 dollars.
What non surgical procedures may be of an important benefit to Washington residents?
Because we have the most advanced diagnostic imaging equipment in Canada we are offering an “Early Health Screening program.”
This can be thought of as an extension to the full physical. Our primary care physicians perform a full routine physical examination and history on you, determining what illnesses you may develop in the future, based on your social status, family history, past medical history, smoking, alcohol intake, sugar intake etc and apply our advanced technology accordingly.
Example: smoker with high cholesterol, a Computer Tomography Coronary Artery Angiogram can render a 3 dimensional image of your heart and its blood vessels to determine if you are at risk for heart attack.
Our 3 Tesla non radiation MRI machine can be used to determine any brain or organ lesions etc by using whole body scans carefully tailored to your needs based on your full physical examination. Men are often interested in Prostate scanning.
We also provide colonoscopy and the alternative virtual colonoscopy to rule out bowel cancer for people with family history of colon cancer.
I feel this “early health screening program” is an important preventative measure for patient who have only catastrophic healthcare coverage and expected to pay out of pocket for other healthcare costs. Prevention is always better than cure. So if you only have Catastrophic Healthcare Coverage, you need to stay well, the Early Health Program is well worth it at False Creek Surgical Centre.
So if I decide to have surgery- how do I get followed up?
For major surgery we accommodated you in our overnight stay hospital suites, then following discharge you remain in the city for a few days after discharge. During this period of time we will carefully monitor your recover with routine visits from our doctors. This will all be covered with no further cost to you.
Before you leave British Columbia we give you an electronic record containing all the care you received. We can also upload the clinical care and diagnostics to your Personal Medical Record on Microsoft Healthvault or Google Health.
Again, follow-up is only a short trip by car or plain ride. It not the same as going to India, Mexico, Costa Rica or Brazil for medical tourism healthcare.
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