The accelerating severity of this coronavirus pandemic and the impending disastrous effects that it will have on our healthcare system will jeopardize our ability to treat those individuals requiring intensive care. In response to this, numerous hospitals and outpatient centers in the Scottsdale and Phoenix metropolitan areas have cancelled all elective surgery, effective immediately. This includes both North Valley Surgery Center and Piper Outpatient Surgery where I perform all plastic surgery procedures.
How this will affect you if you have either already scheduled surgery or are planning to do so within the next several months is as follows:
1. All elective cosmetic surgery is cancelled effective immediately. We won’t know for a while when it can be scheduled or rescheduled. It is pure conjecture on my part, but I suspect that this prohibition may last three months or longer.
2. Plastic surgery procedures related to the treatment of cancer such as primary breast reconstruction and the removal of skin cancers should not be affected at all by this.
3. Non-emergent procedures such as breast reductions, panniculectomies, and the treatment of scars, benign lesions or masses such as lipomas will be cancelled and will not be allowed to be scheduled.
4. There are some gray area plastic surgery procedures that both North Valley Surgery Center and Piper Surgery Center will evaluate on a case by case basis to determine if they will be allowed to be performed during this period of time. These centers have not, as of yet, decided what these may procedures are.
We will be contacting all those individuals whose previously scheduled surgery must be cancelled. Those of you who have wanted to schedule surgery will be notified of these current restrictions.
Once we are provided with a time frame when these restrictions are removed, you will be contacted so that you can schedule/reschedule your surgery.
Minor plastic surgery procedures that can be performed in our office will not be affected – at least as of now. We will continue offering Botox® and Juvederm® treatments.
If you have any questions, you can call our office at (480) 451-3000 or contact us by email.