As a primary care physician with a pure office practice, I’m not up to date with many of the issues that surgeons face. That’s why I like to read Jeffrey Parks’ observations on the surgical profession.
A recent post talks about how trauma surgeons want to increase their caseload, by transferring acute surgical cases out of community hospitals and into regional medical centers. The rationale being that smaller hospitals can save on infrastructure costs.
Calling it “politics cloaked in science,” Dr. Parks sees a deeper issue, namely that trauma surgeons are cherry-picking procedures: “They want to be able to scavenge all the midnight appendectomies and free air cases because, well, otherwise they wouldn’t ever operate.”
This brings up the larger question of whether trauma surgery is viable as an independent field, given the dearth of surgical cases.
Stealing cases from general surgeons at community hospitals clearly isn’t the right answer.
topics: trauma, surgery
Related posts:
- Would you rather have an older or younger trauma surgeon?
- Culture of surgery
- FPs doing trauma surgery?
- A trauma story
- Does a checklist before surgery really save lives?
- Work-hour restrictions in surgery?
- Mid-levels for primary care, but not for surgery?
{ 2 comments }
I think all doctors would like to cherry pick the best cases, the most interesting, the safest, etc. I’m sure their insurers would like them to cherry pick cases as well, if only for litigious reasons.
But we also have to balance the fact that if these guys aren’t operating all that frequently, they aren’t going to be as good as they need to be in an emergency. Maybe people really have to have dual residencies in trauma surgery along with ___________(insert specialty here ) in order to justify their costs, their income and keep all their skills as sharp as they need to be.
And perhaps if there aren’t as many cases to go around in a region, that’s a larger business indication about balance of staff to patients that hospitals need to seriously consider.
I look at trauma surgery a lot like I look at firemen. There is a lot of down time and they may not do as many procedures as other specialties, but you’re damn glad they are there when the excrement hits the spinning blades.
If trauma wants to cherry pick some cases to keep up their skills, let ‘em.
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