You are not unreasonable. It seems that VHS should be able to find an ortho somewhere in their network to see your wife ASAP. Although we have Original Medicare and are not in the Villages Health System, we have visited two VHS orthopedics here (Ethier and Silberberg).
I am a veteran of orthopedic surgeries, one a knee replacement, the rest the result of falls. Last summer on a trip abroad I fell and broke my femur in England. Contrary to the skeptics/critics about the British health care system, surgery was performed the next day and hospital care for the total nine days was wonderful, although the food was awful and there was no air conditioning. The total cost of $11,000 from start to finish was a fraction of what it would have been here. Thankfully, we had good trip insurance.
From England I called Dr. Ethier at VHS to schedule followup care but was told, in effect, that he doesn't follow work that others have done. Same with another practice I called which suggested seeing a trauma orthopedic doctor in Ocala. I ended up going to a PA in our internist's office to have the stitches removed. She also prescribed home nursing and physical therapy. Eventually I saw a PA in another orthopedic practice for X-rays and follow up. I never did see a doctor here.
My first broken femur occurred almost 20 years ago under a waterfall in Venezuela. My husband's orthopedic doctor in Houston had no qualms about seeing me and correcting the surgery that was done in Venezuela. A sign of changing times perhaps.
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