Hello out there! Once again, this is your faithful receptionist Jill here to report on tidbits that may or may not be helpful. Your choice!
I get an awful lot of questions about this one, so I think I should clarify now in writing.
When new patients see the free consult we offer, they get really excited (as well they should). An experienced doctor of internal and bariatric medicine giving a free visit? Is this too good to be true? Doctors normally charge out the wazoo for things, how can this be?
The answer is simple: until any testing is done, the visit remains free. We will ask you ahead of time to fill out the necessary papers from our website (especially the nutrition evaluation--very important if you don't want to do anything beyond the "free" part of the visit) and make up a chart for you in the office. You can ask all the questions you want to the doctors, and they use everything you filled out for them (the medical history and nutrition evaluation) to try and tailor their advice as specifically to you as possible. They'll answer any questions on past medical events in your life, why it seems that you can't lose weight now, what habits you've formed and why, and advise you as much as they can.
When the visit stops being a free one is when the Indirect Calorimetry machine gets pulled out. This nifty machine is a ten minute breathing test that measures your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR). What this means is it tests how many calories you'd burn if you just sat around all day. This is an $80.00 test. BCBS HMO patients, your plan doesn't cover the test and you will have to pay upfront. The rest of you it is dependent on your personal plan whether or not you're covered. If you're a self-pay you also have to pay up front. This is an important test because it helps the doctors to realize how fast your metabolism is and how to work with it for effective weight loss. It also determines how many calories the doctors would like you to eat per day, and the minimal amount of exercise you would need to do to start losing weight.
After patients take the IC (and those who are serious about healthy weight loss do so right away) the free consult turns into an actual visit. So yes, we do charge for the visit at that point. We try to let you know all this ahead of time or during the visit, but some patients are still suprised when they hear that they were charged.
Don't blame me, though. The doctor is the one who determines who gets charged. Don't complain to them either--they're just doing their job.
So now you know. And if you ask me on the phone, you'll hear this same spiel. I will let you in on a little secret: those who "skip" the free consult and go ahead with the IC test lose at least three pounds in the first week. After that it's up to ten pounds the next time we see them. It continues from there. So while the first visit may not always be free, you do get your money's worth. ^_^
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Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Excercising and Prairie Stone
I looked at the nice lady in front of me and sighed. “I’m sorry, ma’am, I just don’t have a pill that is called exercise.”
The patient was a very nice lady of about 70. She had lost about 16 pounds but nothing for the past several months. She was at the Dieters dreaded plateau. She was adamant about not wanting to exercise. She had arthritis of the hip, exercise bored her, she didn’t like the way that she looked in workout clothes, she didn’t have the time and every other excuse in the book she could think of.
The problem is that there is no weight loss program that has any chance of long term success without incorporating exercise. It is possible to lose a few pounds without exercising, but what we lose will be a mixture of fat and protein (from our muscles and our internal organs). If we regain that weight, which almost always happens, it comes back as fat. Exercise combined with weight loss makes our body preferentially dump extra pounds as fat, not as protein. And studies show that the people who manage not to regain weight overtime average an hour of exercise a day.
Most weight loss programs will succeed temporarily but ultimately fail because they are lacking one component or another. Last week I saw two patients that had regained tremendous amounts of weight after having gastric bypass surgery. Neither of these patients had ever changed their lifestyles to incorporate exercise. They wanted the quick fix of surgery because someone else did all the work for them. They still had their couch potato lifestyles and despite the fact that they couldn’t eat like they formerly had because the effects of the surgery would make them throw up if they did, they still managed to regain most of the weight they had lost over time. When I pointed this out to them, and suggested that they should finally begin adopting regular exercise, they turned away, uninterested. Just give me a pill, doc. Another quick fix for my problems. Don’t make me do any work or make any changes.
All of this is an introduction for something that I am excited to announce. Our practice, Chicago Weight Control, is about to expand our comprehensive Medical Weight Loss Program to a new location. We are starting an affiliation with Prairie Stone Health and Fitness Center (hereafter referred to as PS). PS is actually a Hoffman Estates Park District facility, but I’ve never seen a park district facility that looks anything like it. It is a truly state of the art health facility. The fact that it is a park district facility makes it feel less like a money hungry health club and reminds me much more of other partner in comprehensive programming, the Gottlieb Memorial Hospital Health and Fitness Center. Both facilities have a genuine interest in improving the wellbeing and fitness of their members. While they both have facilities that compare nicely to the glitziest commercial health clubs, they are the kind of places where normal, out of shape people who don’t have perfect physiques to begin with won’t feel out of place in.
The program that we have had with Gottlieb has been in place for a few years and has been a great success. We have had over a hundred patients go through it and the average 12 week weight loss is 28 pounds. We have seen people who continue in the program lose over two hundred pounds over time and learn to keep it off.
The Gottlieb program was created as a “dream weight loss program.” Patients see a physician trained in weight loss (myself or Dr. Elhag); they have their metabolism and laboratories checked; they meet with a dietician to craft a diet specific for their needs;
they have monthly group meetings to review behavioral issues in weight loss; and most importantly they meet with a trainer once a week and are required to visit the health club at least three times a week. At the end of the program, most have found the exercise to not only be beneficial but fun, and join the facility.
I am sure that we will be able to duplicate the program at PS and look forward to its initiation.
We have informational meetings scheduled at Gottlieb on Wednesday 2/11/09 and at PS on 02/25/09. Call us at (708) 452 5809 for information about registering for either meeting.
The patient was a very nice lady of about 70. She had lost about 16 pounds but nothing for the past several months. She was at the Dieters dreaded plateau. She was adamant about not wanting to exercise. She had arthritis of the hip, exercise bored her, she didn’t like the way that she looked in workout clothes, she didn’t have the time and every other excuse in the book she could think of.
The problem is that there is no weight loss program that has any chance of long term success without incorporating exercise. It is possible to lose a few pounds without exercising, but what we lose will be a mixture of fat and protein (from our muscles and our internal organs). If we regain that weight, which almost always happens, it comes back as fat. Exercise combined with weight loss makes our body preferentially dump extra pounds as fat, not as protein. And studies show that the people who manage not to regain weight overtime average an hour of exercise a day.
Most weight loss programs will succeed temporarily but ultimately fail because they are lacking one component or another. Last week I saw two patients that had regained tremendous amounts of weight after having gastric bypass surgery. Neither of these patients had ever changed their lifestyles to incorporate exercise. They wanted the quick fix of surgery because someone else did all the work for them. They still had their couch potato lifestyles and despite the fact that they couldn’t eat like they formerly had because the effects of the surgery would make them throw up if they did, they still managed to regain most of the weight they had lost over time. When I pointed this out to them, and suggested that they should finally begin adopting regular exercise, they turned away, uninterested. Just give me a pill, doc. Another quick fix for my problems. Don’t make me do any work or make any changes.
All of this is an introduction for something that I am excited to announce. Our practice, Chicago Weight Control, is about to expand our comprehensive Medical Weight Loss Program to a new location. We are starting an affiliation with Prairie Stone Health and Fitness Center (hereafter referred to as PS). PS is actually a Hoffman Estates Park District facility, but I’ve never seen a park district facility that looks anything like it. It is a truly state of the art health facility. The fact that it is a park district facility makes it feel less like a money hungry health club and reminds me much more of other partner in comprehensive programming, the Gottlieb Memorial Hospital Health and Fitness Center. Both facilities have a genuine interest in improving the wellbeing and fitness of their members. While they both have facilities that compare nicely to the glitziest commercial health clubs, they are the kind of places where normal, out of shape people who don’t have perfect physiques to begin with won’t feel out of place in.
The program that we have had with Gottlieb has been in place for a few years and has been a great success. We have had over a hundred patients go through it and the average 12 week weight loss is 28 pounds. We have seen people who continue in the program lose over two hundred pounds over time and learn to keep it off.
The Gottlieb program was created as a “dream weight loss program.” Patients see a physician trained in weight loss (myself or Dr. Elhag); they have their metabolism and laboratories checked; they meet with a dietician to craft a diet specific for their needs;
they have monthly group meetings to review behavioral issues in weight loss; and most importantly they meet with a trainer once a week and are required to visit the health club at least three times a week. At the end of the program, most have found the exercise to not only be beneficial but fun, and join the facility.
I am sure that we will be able to duplicate the program at PS and look forward to its initiation.
We have informational meetings scheduled at Gottlieb on Wednesday 2/11/09 and at PS on 02/25/09. Call us at (708) 452 5809 for information about registering for either meeting.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Where Am I?
Hello again. Jill here, your faithful receptionist. For those not in the know, we (and by "we" I mean our valiant medical assistant Donna, our beautiful office manager Sherry, and their spouses) moved the Hoffman Estates Office from Algonquin to 1585 Barrington Road, St. Alexius Doctor Building #2 Ste. 601. And believe you me, a lot of people are having a really hard time finding it.
Last Friday we made one of our poor patients literally drive around in circles as we rattled off directions from where we thought she was, and she found us despite our best efforts to get her seriously lost. Poor thing, took her almost two hours to find us, but she claims it was worth it. She also had Mapquest to aid her, but Mapquest (and most GPS machines) only leads people to an approximation of where St. Alexius is.
When patients finally do arrive, they find parking to be somewhat less than pleasant. Parking spaces are not always to be had in front of the building, but there is additional parking to the side. It is quite a walk. If that is unappealing, I suggest stalking patients as they come out of the building to their cars and attack for a space. Adds some excitement to the day! As one of my favorite patients related to me: "I fought a handicapped woman for the spot I found. We faced off and I knew she was going down. 'Mine!' And boom. Down she went." I was very proud of her.
The end effort is worth it. The office here is really beautiful and just being here makes you feel more relaxed. There's a huge tank with fish swimming, marble floors, a television, and water. Also a great view...of the parking lot. Now you can see all the spaces that aren't available!
So when coming to see us for the first time in our new (and really nice) digs, try leaving yourself a lot of time if you're coming from further away. Otherwise you might have to face down old ladies for prime parking and deal with our horrific direction giving. If that sounds like fun for you than I don't want to take that away from you. ^_^
Last Friday we made one of our poor patients literally drive around in circles as we rattled off directions from where we thought she was, and she found us despite our best efforts to get her seriously lost. Poor thing, took her almost two hours to find us, but she claims it was worth it. She also had Mapquest to aid her, but Mapquest (and most GPS machines) only leads people to an approximation of where St. Alexius is.
When patients finally do arrive, they find parking to be somewhat less than pleasant. Parking spaces are not always to be had in front of the building, but there is additional parking to the side. It is quite a walk. If that is unappealing, I suggest stalking patients as they come out of the building to their cars and attack for a space. Adds some excitement to the day! As one of my favorite patients related to me: "I fought a handicapped woman for the spot I found. We faced off and I knew she was going down. 'Mine!' And boom. Down she went." I was very proud of her.
The end effort is worth it. The office here is really beautiful and just being here makes you feel more relaxed. There's a huge tank with fish swimming, marble floors, a television, and water. Also a great view...of the parking lot. Now you can see all the spaces that aren't available!
So when coming to see us for the first time in our new (and really nice) digs, try leaving yourself a lot of time if you're coming from further away. Otherwise you might have to face down old ladies for prime parking and deal with our horrific direction giving. If that sounds like fun for you than I don't want to take that away from you. ^_^
Gone Fishin'
“If I get hungry when I have to wait for you, I’m going to bring my fishing gear and catch something from your fish tank.”
This was one of the ironic comments that one of my less reverent patients made in our new office surroundings. Some exciting things have been happening with our practice lately and we’d like to share them with everyone.
For one, we’ve moved our Hoffman Estates office. We formerly had been at 1626 W. Algonquin Rd., which is in the middle of a Strip Mall with no other medical practices or facilities in the area. On one side of us was a hair salon, and on the other was a restaurant. The restaurant used to be a bar when I was shown the property by a real estate rental agent, at 9:00 A.M. on weekday it was a nice quiet location. I have Tuesday night hours and that was when I discovered the walls were paper thin as the bar music regularly drowned out any conversations that I could have with a patient.
The old location was pretty isolated and we had prospective patients that could never find it. One common problem is that they would go to 1626 East Algonquin Rd which apparently is a Mexican restaurant in Arlington Heights. When the aforementioned bar next to us went out of business it was replaced by yet another Mexican restaurant. This made for some amusing but frustrating scenarios where patients who had gone to 1626 East Algonquin Rd would be calling and saying that they were at the Mexican restaurant and couldn’t find us. Jill thought they meant they were at the restaurant next door and told them to walk over.
Our new digs are at St. Alexius Hospital (Doctor Building Two). We are sharing space with a plastic surgery group (Dr. Frank Madda is named several times as a top plastic surgeon in the Chicago Magazine Poll). Dr. Madda apparently is a tropical fish lover and we have a nice tank in the waiting room, leading to my irreverent patient’s comment.
The main reason that I am excited by the move is that it puts us at a major medical center! This is useful for many reasons but the one that I like the best is that it reinforces that we are a medically based weight loss program. When you come to our office you will see a physician every visit, one that has been highly trained in weight loss medicine. We treat obesity like a disease, the same way we treat diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea, heart disease, arthritis, and all the other diseases
that are caused by obesity. We figure out how many calories you need, devise a diet to help you lose, offer medication to help if you need and want it, and try to assist in treating the other medical problems linked to obesity.
Obesity is a medical problem, after all. Sometimes the seriousness of that message could get lost when we were in a less than serious location, like a suburban strip mall.
This was one of the ironic comments that one of my less reverent patients made in our new office surroundings. Some exciting things have been happening with our practice lately and we’d like to share them with everyone.
For one, we’ve moved our Hoffman Estates office. We formerly had been at 1626 W. Algonquin Rd., which is in the middle of a Strip Mall with no other medical practices or facilities in the area. On one side of us was a hair salon, and on the other was a restaurant. The restaurant used to be a bar when I was shown the property by a real estate rental agent, at 9:00 A.M. on weekday it was a nice quiet location. I have Tuesday night hours and that was when I discovered the walls were paper thin as the bar music regularly drowned out any conversations that I could have with a patient.
The old location was pretty isolated and we had prospective patients that could never find it. One common problem is that they would go to 1626 East Algonquin Rd which apparently is a Mexican restaurant in Arlington Heights. When the aforementioned bar next to us went out of business it was replaced by yet another Mexican restaurant. This made for some amusing but frustrating scenarios where patients who had gone to 1626 East Algonquin Rd would be calling and saying that they were at the Mexican restaurant and couldn’t find us. Jill thought they meant they were at the restaurant next door and told them to walk over.
Our new digs are at St. Alexius Hospital (Doctor Building Two). We are sharing space with a plastic surgery group (Dr. Frank Madda is named several times as a top plastic surgeon in the Chicago Magazine Poll). Dr. Madda apparently is a tropical fish lover and we have a nice tank in the waiting room, leading to my irreverent patient’s comment.
The main reason that I am excited by the move is that it puts us at a major medical center! This is useful for many reasons but the one that I like the best is that it reinforces that we are a medically based weight loss program. When you come to our office you will see a physician every visit, one that has been highly trained in weight loss medicine. We treat obesity like a disease, the same way we treat diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea, heart disease, arthritis, and all the other diseases
that are caused by obesity. We figure out how many calories you need, devise a diet to help you lose, offer medication to help if you need and want it, and try to assist in treating the other medical problems linked to obesity.
Obesity is a medical problem, after all. Sometimes the seriousness of that message could get lost when we were in a less than serious location, like a suburban strip mall.
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