A Patient-Centered Solution To Simultaneous Surgery

The practice of concurrent, or simultaneous, surgery has largely been hidden from public knowledge until recently, and current guidelines regulating the practice fall short in protecting and serving patients in crucial ways. Simultaneous surgery occurs when one surgeon, with the help of assistants, performs two surgeries on two different patients in different operating rooms at the same time. A series of articles published last year in The Boston Globe propelled the practice into public consciousness. In response to the ensuing outcry the American College of Surgeons revised their guidelines with respect to simultaneous surgeries. The medical community hopes this will put the controversial matter to rest. The revised guidelines stress both informed patient consent and the necessity of ensuring that surgeons are present during “critical elements” of any surgery. Importantly, these guidelines leave the decision regarding what exactly constitutes “critical elements” completely in the hands of the operating surgeon. While I applaud the emphasis on informing patients, these guidelines are not nearly enough, and fall short in two crucial ways. Truly Informed Consent Informed consent has been the standard of care for American physicians for decades. Unfortunately, we continue to be surprisingly bad at it. Recent research shows that only a small minority of patients—just 9 percent in one study—receive adequate information from their medical team to make truly info...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Featured Health Professionals Quality patient-centered care simultaneous surgery surgeons Source Type: blogs