Dr. Stachowicz does personally communicate with all patients. There is no intermediaries or a “front desk”. All consultations are by appointment only, they take as much time as it’s needed without time limit. Flexibility of scheduling means that each patient can be seen mornings, evenings and on many weekends. Moreover, special arrangements can be made for anyone wishing to initiate the process remotely (when patient resides out of town, for example), obtain all the information and quote, schedule treatment and then complete in-person visit at more convenient time or just before surgery to minimize travel times.

Unlike traditional practice with expensive office and multiple employees, APS has focused on eliminating unnecessary expenses by sharing consultation spaces with other medical or skin care professionals. In addition to that, all surgeries are performed at main Minneapolis hospital where hourly facility and anesthesia rates are lower than any surgery center while providing maximum in up to date operating room environment and MD based anesthesia services. All this translates into significant savings while providing safety of a modern hospital.

Every patient will have different post operation needs and that’s why follow ups are dictated by individuals recovery progress. This means that some checkups can be a home visit by Dr. S or a nurse, video or photo updates and office visits as well. 

During the recovery, when questions arise, a quick text is best and Dr. S or Jen RN will call or text back. We discourage waiting and being worried or over-utilization of “Dr Google”.

American Board of Plastic Surgery awards their certificate after arduous standardized training is completed and after series of exams are passed and when continuous education is maintained.

Unfortunately, in North America anyone can claim to be a plastic surgeon as long as they don’t have hospital affiliation and work out private practice. One way to find out quickly is to ask your surgeon what hospital they have admitting privileges at in case I have to be admitted for additional treatment, etc.?

Finally, it’s important to point out that American Board of Medical specialties recognizes only one Plastic Surgery certificate, others like “Facial surgery”, “Aesthetic Surgery” or “Body contouring” are not certificates.

We will go over the recovery in detail with every patient. In general, surgery like a tummy tuck will have about 6 weeks of restrictions which gradually decrease as that time progresses, breast augmentation or lift at least a month, and some surgeries like liposuction may have fairly minimal restrictions providing that compression garments are worn.

Each quote should include at least these components:

- facility (operating room cost);

- anesthesia cost;

- any supplies or implants cost;

- surgeon’s fee.

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When comparing its pays to ask specifically about each component and when it comes to implants or supplies to double check what type is quoted or advertised.

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For example, best implants that I would typically use are $2600 where a sailine implants can be less than $800.

First of all, traveling after invasive surgery is potentially dangerous.

When price is the sole factor for decision making then it is likely to result in a surgery being performed in “factory” like settings with minimal contact before or after surgery with qualified staff. Many questions come up in weeks after surgery or even some minor issues, when those can be addressed promptly - they are just an inconvenience. I see often patients who returned from their surgery trip and were effectively on their own with limited options and difficulties contacting their surgeons. This means delays and extra problems when only options are a random ER visit or finding and paying for the services of a new surgeon.

Bottom line - do ask questions (if something sounds too good, ask more) and do your surgery where you can stay for at least a month close to your surgeon.

As a doctor, I love second opinions!

It is perfectly OK to reach out to another doctor to ask same questions again and get different perspective. Since usually consultations are free then one can look at it as another option for educating oneself.

“Buyer” be ware!

Any “new” and non surgical devices promising a lift, weight loss, fat removal, skin tightening, etc. have very limited potential at best.

So one has to ask the following: Is my goal to have a tested and predictable outcome treatment once (even if I have to go to sleep) or do I chance multiple treatments with little or no result outcome likely?

My favorite example: cool sculpting or similar.

I do see patient often who have spent upward of 15 or 20 thousands to get some degree of improvement (or not) while they could have spent less than 8k to treat abdomen, sides, maybe chin - ONCE - recover and move on with life.

I have in the past accepted some options like Care Credit just to realize that they take huge percentage out of the payment to the office and that many offices quote higher prices in those cases.

Decision was simple - reduce admin time / cost and offer best price with full transparency.

Before surgery hospital and anesthesia is paid about 10 days ahead and surgeon fees can be paid ahead or morning of surgery.

Important fact is that when 2 or more things are safely combined my hospital discounts each additional procedure by 50% and I discount my fees as well by minimum 25% (very rare in the industry).

The beauty of running a patient oriented practice is that it is flexible from the start.

Some prospective patients prefer traditional “visit first” approach, but even here I offer creative scheduling. It may mean very early visit before work, lunch time or maybe weekend if taking time from work is not possible for a patient.

Some questions do need an in-person visit first due to complexity of the concern or previous surgeries. Occasionally, due to very rigid schedule of the patient, the in-person visit is planned to consist of introduction and exam (5 to 10 min) and the rest of the consultation, planning and price quote is discussed later over the phone when time is not a constrain.

Finally, others prefer submitting preliminary photos after a phone introduction, then discussion can follow and even scheduling. The confirmatory in-person visit follows when convenient, especially helpful for out of town patients.

You just need to text or call the following number:

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612-770-1995 Dr. S