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We planned to move to the mtns of NC when we retired 10 years ago but I came down a nasty bladder condition and 'was under the care of a specialist in that problem which took me a year to get into remission
In addition we both have other illnesses and have long time specialists at local research hospitals (cardiac, gastroenterology, etc.)
I'd love to hear from people with serious medical issues who made the decision and moved to a new location away from their doctors.
I think if you want to move somewhere else, it should be in a place that also has a good choice of medical specialists. That is probably not to a rural mountain area.
There is a recent thread on the topic:
Good Hospitals in Retirement.
I had a pack of doctors who I have been with for 15 years or more, and we moved to another state. We are kinda rural so I am trying out the ones close to us, and if they aren't ones I want to work with I'll see them a little over an hour away, which is the nearest big city. It has been kinda a pain though, no pun intended.
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We planned to move to the mtns of NC when we retired 10 years ago but I came down a nasty bladder condition and 'was under the care of a specialist in that problem which took me a year to get into remission
In addition we both have other illnesses and have long time specialists at local research hospitals (cardiac, gastroenterology, etc.)
I'd love to hear from people with serious medical issues who made the decision and moved to a new location away from their doctors.
Thanks for your input!
My wife has some medical issues that require specialists, the worst being osteoporosis. Turns out that docs who really understand osteoporosis are not all that common - internal medicine docs don't normally treat it and neither do orthopedic docs. Some geriatric docs do. Where we moved has zero geriatric docs. The other problem is DW has a macular hole which requires surgery, and there are zero ophthalmologic surgeons here. But we love Maui (where we moved to) and make do. DW flew to Minnesota (Mayo clinic) for her eye and she consulted with a Seattle doc for osteoporosis who started her on a treatment plan which a local internal medicine doc has taken over.
Basically, where there is a will, there is a way. If you love living somewhere but it has rural medicine (like Maui does) you will figure out how to make it work for you. I have asked DW if she would prefer moving back to Seattle with its many top notch clinics and she says absolutely not.
Personally if I had alot of medical issues, especially the less common ones, I would not want to move to a rural or a smaller town where there are limited specialists. Good healthcare is sometimes hard to find in some of those areas and the older a person gets the harder it will be to travel to the bigger cities for care. I'd stay close to the specialists who are familiar with your condition and instead vacation to those smaller towns as you are able to.
Personally if I had alot of medical issues, especially the less common ones, I would not want to move to a rural or a smaller town where there are limited specialists. Good healthcare is sometimes hard to find in some of those areas and the older a person gets the harder it will be to travel to the bigger cities for care. I'd stay close to the specialists who are familiar with your condition and instead vacation to those smaller towns as you are able to.
^^^This pretty much nailed it!
We do have health issues and our medical resources here are excellent. As such, we prefer to visit those lovely rural areas as tourists but would not consider moving there permanently.
When you experience a medical emergency and you live just one mile from a world class ER that can provide competent help 24/7 you appreciate that resource.
My wife has some medical issues that require specialists, the worst being osteoporosis. Turns out that docs who really understand osteoporosis are not all that common - internal medicine docs don't normally treat it and neither do orthopedic docs. Some geriatric docs do. Where we moved has zero geriatric docs. The other problem is DW has a macular hole which requires surgery, and there are zero ophthalmologic surgeons here. But we love Maui (where we moved to) and make do. DW flew to Minnesota (Mayo clinic) for her eye and she consulted with a Seattle doc for osteoporosis who started her on a treatment plan which a local internal medicine doc has taken over.
Basically, where there is a will, there is a way. If you love living somewhere but it has rural medicine (like Maui does) you will figure out how to make it work for you. I have asked DW if she would prefer moving back to Seattle with its many top notch clinics and she says absolutely not.
Well, that's fine for conditions that have already been diagnosed.
What happens when something comes up and it baffles the local sawbones? You accumulate even more frequent flyer miles?
I have some knowledge of the WNC healthcare market, so I'll chime in here.
Mission Health is the primary healthcare provider in the more populated parts of WNC, especially in and around Asheville. Sometime last year, Mission Health, a nonprofit, sold itself to Community Health System, a national, for-profit, hospital conglomerate based out of Nashville, TN.
I know people in corporate departments who were either already laid off or were told to transfer to Nashville or lose their jobs. There are rumors of specialists outside of Asheville being folded to Asheville or the number of specialists being reduced.
If I had something that needed a specialist once a quarter, going to Charlotte wouldn't be a big deal. If it's once a week or every other week, that's a lot of driving.
I would really like to leave SW Florida and move somewhere that has a shorter summer and four mild seasons, like western NC. However, I've had breast & thyroid cancer and I don't want to have to start all over again with finding new doctors. I like having a hospital a 10 minute drive away and all my doctors are 10-20 minutes away.
I would really like to leave SW Florida and move somewhere that has a shorter summer and four mild seasons, like western NC. However, I've had breast & thyroid cancer and I don't want to have to start all over again with finding new doctors. I like having a hospital a 10 minute drive away and all my doctors are 10-20 minutes away.
It all depends on what is acceptable to you.
A colleague of mine had a kidney transplant this year. He was three hours away one way from the hospital that did the surgery, and that was just too far. At first, he was having to go back to Knoxville weekly. He's 45 minutes from a regional hospital. He was able to go back to work and transfer with his company to metro DC.
If I was reasonably healthy now and expected to remain so, it might be OK to drive to Charlotte or Greenville, SC for specialists. Greenville is only about an hour from Asheville and closer from some locations like Hendersonville.
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