Emma Patterson Bariatric Surgeon MD, FRCSC, FACS

I first met with Dr. Patterson the end of January, 2002. She was very informative and explained the surgery in detail. I was impressed. I had already done the required sleep study, psch. evaluation and visit with a dietician she requires. I was also put on a strict diet. I saw her again in April and I`d lost 30 lbs. I received my surgery date of June 12th, 2002 and saw Dr. Patterson on May 29th, 2002 with my husband. She went over the surgery and possible complications in detail with us. I`ve lost a total of 40 lbs. before the surgery. She said it will make the surgery easier on me. I`ve heard nothing but praise about Dr.Patterson and I feel confident that I have chosen the best surgeon for my WLS.

I met with Dr.Patterson almost a year ago. She is nice, seems very capable and knowledgeable. When I saw hre, my husband's employer had just changed insurance to ODS, who do NOT cover the surgery. I did all of my preliminary testing and saw her anyway. She said that whenever they change insurance (they change almost every year) to give her a call and she would get me right in for a pre-op.

She has a great, supportive staff, especially the woman who runs the bariatric center.

Dr. Patterson went over al of the surgery options, and gave me statistics of all of the pros and cons. She even gave me the ones for mortality.

I look forward to seeing her...hopefully soon..again.

I was particularly impressed with her, and have heard nothing but great things about her abilities as a surgeon.

I really felt like she cared about me and what was best for me. She spent time talking to me and was open for questions. I had some problems with her office staff at first because my case was out of the box different from most. I had not gone to the shrink before my first appt and that help up my moving forward with any thing. They are very strict with the procedures they make you go through. They do not allow you to vary. I think that communications could be better. I must say that now I have insurance approval at 100% they are very helpful and things are moving along nicely.She does emphasize the risk and you have to see a dietitian along the way. The risk are talked about and as well as the options of surgery. I would rate Dr Patterson at this point as a 7. It takes a long time to get into see her. I waited almost a year.

I spoke to Dr McConnell last night for the first time and i have to say my Personal impression was that he is not to informative or uplifting he just asked me questions about myself to get to know my situation, wich i can totaly understand. He is alittle quiet but he will probably warm up after the first meeting. I have heard nothing but great things about him and his staff and i am looking forward to meeting him for the first time. He called me around 8:30 wich i thought was saprising, because normaly you cant get a doctor to call you after 5pm =) I actually realy liked that he called me at that time. Because i somtimes work late and it realy shows that he cares about his patients and that he will do whatever it takes to help them even if it meens working late calling his patiets etc. His Receptionist seemed very nice the times I called and left messages. He told me that his Receptionist will call me to schedual and apointment for a Consultation.

10-27-01 still no word from Dr. McConnnel. I cant beleive he never called back to set it up, oh well im not going threw him anymore. My doctor had refered me to a dr. Patterson Its been fairly simple except the fact that there is alot of things that have to be done. Her office was verry nice to me and verry helpfully i called them the first day and the next day my application came in the mail. i filled it out and sent it back and within a week i received it and said that i am a candidate of the program and it listed all the next steps i have to take before my first meeting with Dr. Patterson. I had to schedual appointments with a psychologist, diatician, and have blood tests and sleep apnea testing done thru my PCP. The lady at dr. Pattersons office told me that she would call me back in jan. to set up my appointment with dr. Patterson in March. she said they have alot of patients and are verry backed up but she was upfront with me and told me that she would posatively call me back in jan. Well thats it , ive schedualed all of the appointments i needed to and they are all in Nov. then after that it will just be getting all the paperwork in order for the first consultation. 12/26/01 Well i have gottn alot done. all of my pre surgery appointments are complete , im just waiting till march to have my first consultation with Dr. Patterson. Also I found out from my work that my insurance company is changing starting Jan. to United healthcare. It looks like they are pretty good about approving the surgery so im excited.

My first impressin on her was that she really cared about my weight loss issures. I having problems with her staff trying to get them to understand my insurance does not require all the hoops . They have already told me I would be covered at 100% but they will not even call them at this point until I get the psych evaluation and have a upper GI Test taken. Then they will start the approval process. It seems so strange to me when they act like it is going to be a fight with the insurance company. WE have not talked about after care. I had one appointment and was told to go on a diet eating only , tuna, cottage chees, and lettuce and 8 oz of skim milk with protein mix and a one a day vitamin until my surgery.,I am really getting frustrated. I have been on a high protein , low carb diet since Oct 3rd and have lost 38 pounds it is the 23rd of Nov now. I will tell you , I do not eat just that, I eat chicken, fish, no salad dressing, nothing that is high in carbs which is very limiting, I have found a turkey kilbasa that is good . And a protein drink called carb solutions that is actually very good. I think surgical competence is better than bed side manner but both are good. I would rate the doctor so far as good, staff , not so good to deal with.

11/11/01 - Dr Emma Patterson no longer does a BPD/DS after 6 successful surgeries in Portland OR. She has decided to do the old Scoparino version of the DS and now removes the pylorus in her surgeries.
I can no longer recommend her for DS surgeries...and am very frustrated about this decision, which was "sprung" on both her pre op patients and post op patients with no reasonable fore warning.
She still does the RNY and a Lap Adjustable Band.
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6/1/01 I was originally dissatisfied with the office but they have grown, the staff has become more efficient and they have worked thru the original growing pains of a new surgeon coming into an existing small office.
Dr Patterson is a thoughtful person and in a recent conversation described her position as a bariatric surgeon.
She said "I love this surgery and the people who come here for help. With a few hours of surgery I can help them change their life and manage their health. I find my patients to be the most educated, the most willing to co operate with the pre op requirements and I love being able to help them."
I am impressed with this young woman and would encourage others to choose her for their surgeon.
She fully covers the surgical risks.
The aftercare program is a monthly group meeting and members are encouraged to comtact each other for support.
Her patients have formed a tightly knit community on Yahoo at
OSSG_DRPATTERSON@YAHOOGROUPS.COM

She is very nice and answerd my questions, Very busy and I had to come back to my decision between RNY or Lap band.

no

wonderful--helpful--the best-thanks Amber & Sandy
nothing

have everything ready for your first appointment
great followup from what I hear

I am pre-opt but I heard it was great

yes complety

10 out of 10


ask me in December

This woman is good - she knows it; not a bad thing. She is confident, outgoing and won't BS you. She will also do what she thinks is best. I did not like her for the longest time because she told me she didn't have much experience with bipolar patients and wasn't sure I could handle it. I had to wait 7 more months since my initial consultation to get the approval from the psychologist. I understand her point but the wait was depressing to say the least. I just got my surgery date today so I'm liking her a little better. She was nicer to me yesterday when I visited her. She modified the "duodenal switch" procedure from the one she was originally doing for safety reasons. She was upfront with me about this and admitted many of her patients were upset about it. I appreciated this honesty tremendously and respect her for that. I will report more after I have more interactions with her.

My first impression of Emma Patterson was not a good one. She seemed tense and uncomfortable with me. She was performing the surgery for me because my primary surgeon couldn't get privileges at the hospital where the surgery was to be performed. In all fairness I only saw her once before my surgery. All my pre-testing was done with Dr. Marinus Koning; he will also be doing my follup appointments. Dr. Patterson's office staff has been friendly and helpful. Dr. Koning's office staff is friendly but his PA's do not return phone calls and are very unorganized. I, as well as others in my support group suffered heartaches and disappointments due to the lack of professionalism by the medical assistant(s) at Dr. Koning's office. As far as Dr. Koning goes, I feel he is very dedicated to weight loss surgery and to patients who suffer from obesity. But I also feel he has too much going on and sometimes patients get neglected because he is so busy with organizing a bariatric center in the city he works in and his fight in Washington, D.C. for the rights of obese people getting authorized payment from insurance companies for the surgery. I live in an isolated place in a small town so my choices for this surgery were very limited. I believe staying with the same surgeon from beginning to end is most important. Because of where I lived and the situation with the doctor I started with I had no choice but to have one surgeon for the pretesting and after care and then one for the actual surgery. I advice all interested in surgery to attend WLS support groups in your area before setting a consultation appointment with a surgeon. Ask around and find out as much information about available surgeons as possible before making your decision.