Hopkins or Univ of MD Medical Center... any feedback?

Does anyone have personal experience with either Hopkins or the University of MD? It seems that Dr. Walsh from Hopkins is mentioned a lot but as I have no experience in this matter, I'm wondering if anyone has experience with Dr's from these places and if they tend to be better than others.

Post Edited (dude1969) : 8/4/2011 5:33:30 AM (GMT-6)

Looks to me like you need to make your subject more precise, like "Opinions on Johns Hopkins or U. of Md.?". Might get more feedback.
You can edit your original post - pull it up, and look for the Pencil in a box - upper right corner of the message box.

Post Edited (142) : 8/5/2011 1:55:47 PM (GMT-6)

Dude:
My experience was with Hopkins. Personally, I did not give U of MD any consideration since they don't have a leadership position in urology or the entire field of prostate cancer treatment. By chance a few months ago, (long after my surgery) I noticed a report by the State of MD on hospital surgery and infection/complication rates. Hopkins did exceeding well. U of MD was fair to average. Not that it really is a major factor, but Hopkins received the No. ! ranking again for 2011 from US News and World Report.

Not sure why some look down on Hopkins as a center for treatment. Yes, it is big and not gushing with warm fuzzies. However, my concern was outstanding surgical experience and expertise, good infection control and an outstanding surgical department protocols. Hopkins provided that for me. I had several phone follow-ups despite the busy schedule of my urologist/surgeon. Had open RP and was home the next afternoon. Solid care from nurses while in the hospital and great post surgical instructions. Guys I know from other hospitals had spotty post surgical instructions. One did not have any idea that the compression stockings to prevent blood clots needed to be take home and worn for about a week after surgery.

Someone mentioned Walsh. Unfortunately, he celebrated his final surgery about a month ago. I suppose he will continue to teach and mentor urologist in his role as surgeon emeritus, if such a title exists in medicine. However, Carter (who did my surgery) Partin and a few others have tons of experience and good recovery rates. Go to the Hopkins urology website and explore it thoroughly.

I continue with periodic PSA tests to confirm my status. Fortunately, I also have a Hopkins internal med doctor so test results are transmitted to Baltimore electronically to my urologist as well as my internal med doc. Still working on incontinence. Still have a small weeping leak of about a teaspoon and a half per day. It is slowly getting better over time. ED getting better also. At times can get a normal erection without any drugs despite no emphasis placed by my uro on intensive rehabilitation. Took a few Viagra over the period of a year. However, I had lots of nocturnal erections throughout recovery period.

If you need more info. We can converse via email. Let me know. Click on my profile and see my text in the location line for my email address.

Mike S
------------------
Dx 56
Biopsy: Gleason 3+3=6, PSA 6.6 One core of 12 with 5% T1c
Surgery: July 2010 J. Hopkins
Path: Gleason 6, Neg Mar, Neg LN, Neg Sem Ves
9/15/10 1st post op PSA <0.1 undetectable
3/11/11 PSA - <0.1
Incontinence - seeing some progress
Aug -Sept 2010 - 4-5 pads
Oct 2010 3 pads
Nov 2010 2 pads
Dec - July 2011 1 pad all day - 1 pad at night for very minor leaks (3 cc)
ED: slow improvements

Lori - glad to hear your dad's surgery went well. Looks like Dr. Bivalacqua is a young guy. What made your dad select him rather than one of the more senior Hopkins docs? (I am assuming it is because the more senior Hopkins docs do open surgery only, while some of the younger guys do the robot)