Need to know the best hospitals for tansplant

Asexyblond23

New member
HI,

My husband is in the army and in 2 years we will be moving and I need to prepare for where we will go. I have to find a hospital that has an army base near it. Otherwise they could kick my husband out because he cant be with me for that much time for a transplant and not at work. If people could please name off the best hospitals that you knw of for an adult transplant I would really appricate it
 

coltsfan715

New member
I may be wrong on this but I believe that your husband could request special orders to be stationed at a base near a medical facility for you. I know that it was allowed for my father when he was enlisted and I was needing to be in a different climate and near a CF Center. He was in the Marine Corps and was stationed on a Navy base in Jacksonville.

That being said I know that Mayo is awesome and there are two navy bases in Jacksonville. Otherwise I would search UNOS.org and see if there are any transplant centers that are of interest to you. If there are I would then see if they are located in cities that have Army bases. That will probably be the easiest. You can also look up statistics for transplant centers on the UNOS website, so it will help you make an educated decision about somewhere you want to be listed.

Good luck,
Lindsey
 

Liza

New member
Hi, The best place to start is to get a good ole military installation map from the px or go to military.com where you can go to all the Army Posts and see where they are located. Now, I am sure that his job determines which bases he can be sent to (at least that is how it is in the AF, not everyone can be sent everywhere). Locate the major cities near those posts. As I'm sure you know, TriCare is seperated into three regions. You can then go to UNOS and locate all the transplant centers by state. Next you will need to cross reference those centers with TriCare to find out which ones are in network. BUT, IF you happen to get sent to a base that has a tx center that is out of network that is closer than one that is in network, they HAVE to send you there and treat it as if it were in network. I believe that distance is like 50 miles or an hours drive, something like that. I will tell you this, TriCare is excellent when it comes to tx. Be sure to request a casemanager right away. They should assign you one if you don't request one. They are a HUGE help. Also, you will need more support than just your husband, since he has to work. Unless he saves up all his leave and they allow him to take it all at once and at last minute. But still, that'd only be 30 days worth. It is part of the evaluation process, your support system. Not only for while you are waiting but also who will be with you when you go in and who will be there after. At Stanford, they required someone to be with you 24/7 once you were discharged for at least the first month post tx. and that was if all was going very well. I will say, it's a bit challenging to search the TriCare sites for who's in network because the docs aren't all always listed where you think they might be. Search for the hospital name, look for all the doctors in the program, search in every field you can think of... in some cases, I just called the darn clinic and asked them if they took TriCare. Which you'll have to do anyway to be sure it's up to date info. It takes some time but it can be done. I can tell you right now, that if your husband were to be sent to Ft. Hood, you'd have to go to Houston or San Antonio, Dallas is not really an option. Good luck in your search. I'm not around here much anymore but feel free to PM or contact by e-mail if it's still an option in the new site. I've not explored it since the change.
 

CrisDopher

New member
What does your husband do in the Army? Perhaps he could get an appointment to Fort Hamilton, here in NY? It is a small (very small) base, but has NY Presbyterian in the city. There are also some military bases in New Jersey that are near this area. Within a two-hour drive, at least.
 

eugenia

New member
Duke Medical Center is one of the best lung transplant centers (and other organs too) and is close to Fort Bragg. Best wishes to you as you 'near' transplant. Our son (39 years old) is in the evaluation process there and we are very impressed with their program. Relocating temporarily there from Atlanta area.
 
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