We are moving to Florida in a few weeks and my husband's liver doctor at Hershey Medical has suggested he go to Tampa Bay General I believe for anything related to his PSC. We are wondering if that is a good hospital with good doctors, transplant program for when the time comes, etc.. We had originally planned on him going to the Mayo clinic in Jacksonville, but it's also much farther to travel. We will be living in Crystal River, FL. Need opinions, thoughts, experiences, etc...
I live in the Cocoa Beach area on the east coast of FL (almost directly across the State from Tampa), and go to Mayo in Jacksonville. It's a little over a two hour drive for us. I can't speak about the medical facilities in the Tampa area but have tried a few in the Orlando area and always end up back at Mayo. My PSC is fairly stable so I only have to go up to Mayo every 6 months. The thing I like about Mayo is they are now treating all my other issues. In addition to PSC I have Crohn's and Asthma. All my Doctors at Mayo have access to all my records and access to experts in Rochester (main Mayo hospital). You probably know the reputation Mayo has. I know longer have to worry about one doctor prescribing something that will impact me in a negative way. I also don't have to wait for Doctors trying to get in touch with each other since they are all part of the same facility. I found in the past trying to get one Doctor to talk to another can be a pain in the butt. I would recommend getting a referral to Mayo as it can take a few months to get the ball going. At the same time check out Tampa and then compare the two. I have found that while my local doctors are good no one knows PSC like Mayo. Good luck.
I'll agree with Pscnofun: go to Mayo. The difference in travel time might be 60-90 minutes, which is nothing for a drive you might make every 6 months or so. I've got nothing but good things to say about my experience there. You will need a local GI still though.
I believe that Tampa Bay General is a top hospital in Florida, at least once I remember it is ranked no. 1 in the state. But if your husband's PSC is in stable condition, going to Jacksonville is not really a big issue. Travel time will be more than 4 hours since I-4 most of the time is a moving parking lot.