Dear Dr. Winder:
Q. I've been thinking about having plastic surgery, and was in to see you last year. Now that I'm really serious about it, I wonder if I should have it done at the hospital. Can you tell me which is better?

A. No, I can't tell you which is better, because that's a decision you need to make for yourself. I can, however, tell you the differences.

1. Affordability - our operating room fees are considerably lower than those of the local hospitals. In a smaller setting, it is much easier for us to control our costs, and we pass those savings on to you.
2. One-on-one care - from the time a patient arrives at our facility the morning of their surgery, they are never without a nurse; this is most important when you're in the recovery room and need help, but find that you have to "wait your turn". In our recovery rooms, there is always no more than one patient and they are constantly attended by one of our RN's.
3. Confidentiality - we take great pride in offering our patients complete and total confidentiality; we even designed our facility to "discharge" patients through a door on the back-side of the building, out of view of the public. Let's face it . . . confidentiality is important.
4. Safety - statistically, ambulatory surgical facilities like ours have lower infection rates than do large hospitals; we've been in the Surgicenter for nearly two years now and have not had a single infection!
5. Comfort level - We also have the luxury of interacting with our patients on a very personal level, which allows more individualized care and makes the whole experience much more pleasant and comfortable for the patient.

Read more about the Surgicenter.