Saturday, July 09, 2005

 

Quick Question: Is Your Surgeon Legit?

Two quick news items from the July 11, 2005 Outpatient Surgery E-Weekly newsletter reinforce the "Surgery Sucks" mindset:

1. An audit of eight hospitals runs by the Indian Health Service in Montana found that 15 of the 20 surgeons on staff did not have their credentials verified (the paperwork needed to verify that they were indeed surgeons in good standing) before they started caring for patients and that four hadn't been issued credentials at all. If you doctor wants to do surgery, ask to see his UPDATED credentials....and make sure the hospital/surgery center's done the same.

2. And from the creep-out department, seven men treated at a Sacramento Hopsital have sued the hospital, claiming that a male nurses' aide molested them or "performed unwated sex acts agains their will" while they were being prepped and/or medicated before surgery. The hospital had no comment, according to the newsletter.

Today's lesson: if someone suggests surgery on YOUR body, make sure you know who's doing it, whether that person is an approved, credentialed surgeon and if you absolutely have to have it done, by all means TAKE SOMEONE TO THE HOSPITAL WITH YOU -- a spouse, a friend, a neighbor, someone you can trust to look out for your best interests and health. And as always, try every alternative possible before surgery for problems that dont' require immediate surgical treatment. By all means, if you need emergency surgery for a burst appendix or accident or something serious, do it. But if the doctor promises to remove pain through surgery, keep looking until there's nothing left!

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