Wesley D. Porter's Online Review Report Card

I experienced Dr. Porter as the anesthesiologist for an outpatient procedure I had at IU Health West, a full-service hospital located in Avon, Indiana. Per the IU website, Dr. Porter is a hospital-based provider only who serves IU Methodist, IU University, IU North, and IU West. He's an osteopathic physician whose specialty is anesthesiology. Anesthesiology is one of those weird specialties and I'm not even sure it's completely fair to review it. The actual encounter time is always limited. I met Dr. Porter a few minutes before the procedure (actually a few minutes later than the procedure was actually scheduled). He explained his process and listened when I expressed some concerns considering he was planning to approach it differently than I had told the surgery would be handled. He explained in a very fundamental way (too fundamental) why this was his preference and I agreed to go with it. I was impressed that when I informed him of my trauma background that he offered to let me place the mask on myself and he then followed up with that once I was in the OR. So, that was a huge and appreciated plus. Obviously, once I was knocked out I have no idea what happened. However, one way to assess urology is by the recovery room journey and I awakened with very little difficulty and was actually in pretty good shape in post-op. I was able to eat and drink fairly quickly. My procedure started around 3:45 or so and I was pretty close to out the door by 6pm. Dr. Porter checked in with me, of course, by surgery's end. He had a pretty casual air about him. He was definitely confident, but not in a conceited way. I was probably most bothered by the conflicting plans for anesthetic and do wish that had been resolved prior to my being in the operating room. It's awkward by that point to have discussions about it, but it unnecessarily increased my anxiety. Overall, however, this was a good experience and I especially appreciated the trauma-informed care that aided my comfort. As a hospitalist, he tends to be one of those docs where you don't necessarily get a "choice" but in this case all worked out well and I found him to be a friendly, professional, and knowledgeable practitioner.