I was a few days out from recieving a surgery on my ankle when my podiatrist messed up his back and he had to cancel my surgery. To follow up, he gave me a referral to BAMC, but due to all the injured OIF soldiers there they in turn referred me to a civilian doctor in the local area.
My questions are... How do I make sure everything is documented for the army properly, besides having him put everything in my medical records?
Will I have to completely restart my treatment with him? (Cast-physical therapy-etc?)
How do civilian doctors give referrals such as deployability, profiles, convalescent leaves?
If I feel he is underqualified am I able to request a second opinion through TRICARE?
I had a similiar situation but chose to get my surgery done by a civilian doctor. I felt that the civilian surgeon would be more qualified. No problem with profiles or anything. I took my medical records to the bttn PA and he wrote me a profile simple as that. When it was time to be released to full duty the surgeon wrote me a letter saying I was released to full duty. The Army took it no problem.
You have to keep a copy of everything yourself. It's very common for your records to disappear or items to disappear at ETS time. Everyone I know makes copies of all their stuff and keeps it at home. Plus if you talk to VA they will tell you the same thing.
