8 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • M A R C H 2 0 1 9
I
t's easy to lose sight of how vulnerable your patients are when
they're laid out on the operating room table, sedated, anes-
thetized, cold and exposed, precious little covering their bodies
and their dignity. We've lost sight, too, on occasion, running photo-
graphs of patients in most compromising positions on our covers, like
these 2 below.
Clearly, these photos
reveal too much, "but
at the same time, it's a
reality of the unneces-
sary exposure of many
surgery patients in
operating rooms," says
Misty Roberts, the
founder of Medical Patient Modesty (patientmodesty.org), a non-
profit organization that works to educate patients about their rights to
modesty in medical settings. "So many patients would cancel their
surgery if they knew how exposed they would be," she adds.
Ms. Roberts is urging hospitals and surgery centers to abandon the
"ridiculous" policy that patients remove their underwear for surgeries
on such areas as the knee or hand that do not involve genitals.
A couple of orthopedic surgeons have taken matters into their own
hands, inventing modesty garments.
• Covr Medical (covrmedical.com). Concerned about how many of
his hip surgery patients were unnecessarily exposed — and frustrated
by the blue towels he used to cover patients' genitals that would often
fall to the floor — Bruce Levy, MD, an orthopedic and sports medi-
A Modest Proposal
Join the movement to maintain your patients' privacy and dignity.
Editor's Page
Dan O'Connor
