If you are concerned about breaking some sort of Dr-Patient protocol try sending the email to his assistant or secretary...That way you don't feel uncomfortable and they will treat the email and forward it to him.

Be expilcit in the details of who you are, what you are suffering from and why you need to 'speak' to the doctor or have an appt with him.

The clearer you are the more likely you will get a positive response.

Sharon

Not sure I totally understand the concern, if his email is on a hospital website it is there so he can be contacted that way.

My ex-GI doctor who has since left Connecticut for Mount Sinai in NYC used to communicate with me by email because he worked odd shifts at Yale New Haven Hospital.  He told me he would send me his new email once he got to Mount Sinai although I have not heard from him and I am wondering if he signed some agreement with Yale that his patients at Yale belong to Yale and not him.  Knowing Yale, they probably did make him sign off on a non-compete of some kind.  Sucks, but that is life, and since I have defended clients who were involved in litigation who didn't have non-competes and should have, I guess I can't complain.

Doctors are on very difficult legal footing if they use regular email to communicate private medical information. That's why practices that use email as a matter of policy tend to use secure email systems that you must log into to use. I email with my doctor, but I assured him explicitly that I didn't give a darn if someone intercepted and read it.

He might answer you anyway, particularly if the question isn't sensitive.

Whatever difficult legal footing they might be on can be cured with a privacy disclaimer, but I don't see anyone on the Yale School of Medicine website using any disclaimers, and I have communicated with those Doctors by email about my own medical condition.  So either they are confident they are secure, or they don't care.

It all depends on your system. With my Kaiser plan, any specialist I have not seen in more than a year requires a new referral from my primary doctor (which I can get via email). So, if you hit that roadblock, just ask your primary for a referral or ask him to contact your surgeon for you to answer questions. 

If he actually monitors that address, he'd probably ask you to make an appointment. If his staff monitor it, they probably would say the same thing. Ten years is a long time to expect advice. But, if it is something really simple and general, he might respond.

Jan

Thanks--I agree 10 years is a long time to expect expert advice, lucky that I haven't had any reason for his specialty I guess. I have another medical issue and didn't know if it required some follow up with pouch was necessary as precaution.   It sounds like a lot of issues surrounding emails and best not to go forward with one. Thanks for input.   

You might have a quicker response with a phone call to his office, especially since it sounds like you have mainly a general inquiry. Generally, ten years is plenty of time to need a follow up, whether you have other medical issues or not. Either way, he might refer you to a GI or another surgeon. My surgeon does not even do j-pouch surgeries anymore and runs the bariactric clinic. Things change sometimes.

Jan

Thanks Jan. I will figure something out.   I personally prefer emails to phone calls--they seem so much more efficient and less time consuming for both people involved when the question is simple but I understand that it is different in the medical community.

I agree 100%. I prefer emails too. No worry about the message getting "lost in translation," or screwing around with phone tag. But, that only applies when there is an ongoing relationship. I would not expect a doctor to even remember who I was after 10 years. But, no harm in putting it out there.

Jan

Pick up the phone and speak to his assistant.  That person will probably be able to steer you in the right direction immediately.