One of the most peculiar and now not uncommon request, thanks to the internet and patient referral sites, is the prospective patient who contacts you from afar. Due to the internet and e-mails, patients can easily contact just about any doctor with their requests. Sometimes these are patients who have never had plastic surgery, but more commonly, they have had procedures that they wish revised.
When I was younger, I would naively take this contact in a flattering manner as a compliment to my presumed skills and ‘expertise’. Now that I am older, and after a few poor experiences with such patients, I have come to realize that these far away patients are fraught with potential problems. First and foremost, why me? They are undoubtably hundreds of plastic surgeons between me and their geographic location. Seeing me is certainly inconvenient in terms of travel. And what I would have to offer is certainly not superior to the vast majority of plastic surgeons that are much closer. Secondly, if you operate on such a patient and they have postoperative issues and complications, such a geographic distance poses obvious logistical problems. An inability to easily manage a postoperative concern is fertile ground for an unhappy patient, even if they are well aware of this concern going into the surgery. Lastly, you have little control of a patient from states away. Just like how they contacted you, they are free to express any of their dissatisfaction on the internet. This is a phenomenon that is unique to far away patients, local patients do not usually engage in this cowardly form of self-expression.
In short, the far way patient has many red flags. I have painfully learned to heed these warning signs. The patient who seeks an ‘expert’ from far away may well have a good reason to do so but that does not always make them a good candidate for the ‘sought after’ plastic surgeon.
Dr Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana