Plastic Surgery Clinic
at the World-Class McCollough Institute in Gulf Shores, Alabama
Enhancing Lives for Patients… & Doctors
When professionals share their expertise and experience, everyone benefits. This is a premise that provides the basis for a unique co-management program established by Dr. E. Gaylon McCollough, founder of the McCollough Institute and Plastic Surgery Clinic in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
Co-management is intended to meet – or exceed – the professional criteria of addressing the health, safety, and welfare of patients.
Through inter-specialty co-management, patients receive portions of their care prior to - and after - plastic surgery in the most convenient and economical location . by a physician with whom patients already have an established doctor-patient relationship.
As a result of requisite instruction and training, co-management physicians pledge to comply with standards established by The McCollough Plastic Surgery Clinic. In order to qualify as a co-management physician, it is necessary to become well- versed in plastic surgical procedures, including available options, effectiveness, potential complications, and common patient concerns and anxieties.
To meet these criteria, co-management physicians are equipped with the required pre-operative assessment and evaluation tools as well as with a detailed protocol for long term evaluation and management of patient concerns.
Direct technological communication with the potential operating surgeon allows for photographic evaluation of a given patient’s needs and/or desires. Upon review of photographs taken while the patient is in the co-management physician’s office, the surgeon establishes a preliminary treatment plan. Costs are calculated, and (in conjunction with the surgeon’s office) a tentative date for surgery may be scheduled.
The co-management physician and his or her staff carry out the pre-operative medical assessment, orders, and review the appropriate medical and laboratory studies to determine if the patient is an acceptable medical risk for elective surgery.
Prior to surgery, all patients are personally assessed by the operating surgeon at the McCollough Plastic Surgery Clinic in Gulf Shores, Alabama, and a final determination regarding advisability and procedures is made.
After surgery, patients are encouraged to remain in the recovery facilities at the McCollough Institute (or very nearby) until it is advisable for them to return home. Short term, return, follow-up visits are also scheduled at the McCollough Plastic Surgery Clinic.
Once initial healing phase is complete, longer term follow-up care can be administered by a co-management physician located closer to the patient’s home. The ability to email photograph of wounds and altered structures makes interactive care more assessable, more convenient, and reduces the costs and risks of unnecessary travel.
Of course, if the patient wishes – or the co-management doctor deems it advisable – patients return to The McCollough Plastic Surgery Clinic for follow-up care and to receive assurance as often as desired.
Compensation for professional services is calculated by a “resource based relative value scale”. Patients are informed – in advance – of the roles of the co-management physician and the operating surgeon(s). When surgery is performed for purely “cosmetic reasons” both the surgeon and the co-management physician is paid – in full and in advance – for services rendered by the patient, not a third party.
Clearly, inter-specialty co-management is an idea whose time has come. It is good for patients and good for doctors who wish to include the assessment and long-term care of plastic surgery patients into their practice.
If you are interested in becoming a member of the inter-specialty co-management team of the McCollough Plastic Surgery Clinic, call 251-967-7000. A representative will be happy to discuss how you can enhance the lives of your patients … as well as that of your own.
