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BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
trapeze artists from materials management, who fly between the supply room and the OR, stocking and pulling supplies and making sure
the things you need from the preference cards are there when you
need them. Don't overlook the equipment tech strongman, who moves
the towers, pushes the C-arm and positions the fracture table.
Our central sterile crew works like trained seals. Who else performs
so diligently, clapping their fins for such a small amount of credit?
Where would we be without them? I'll tell you where we'd be: Down
in central sterile, washing, rinsing, drying, counting, wrapping and
autoclaving all the instruments ourselves.
I haven't even mentioned the dog-and-pony show of manufacturers'
reps trotting in and out of the OR. Everyone knows they're here to
drum up business. But really, by this point they know so much more
than even the surgeon does about the expensive, streamlined titanium
implant that's about to become part of the patient, that it's reassuring
to have them around.
And we can't fail to salute the ringmaster at the administrator's desk.
No one jumps through so many hoops to keep a facility running: From
nimbly balancing the budget, to daringly juggling the surgeons who
want block time and the surgeons who are going to lose block time, to
deftly entertaining the clowns wearing the big shoes of a survey organization. Sometimes in the trenches of surgery, we gripe that they have
no idea what our jobs are like, but I wouldn't want to trade places
with them.
Whichever performer you are, and whichever ring you're starring in,
it takes all of us to fill that big top. Some days you can't help feeling
like the human cannonball, just hoping you'll land in that net, but most
days it's great to have a front-row seat. OSM
Ms. Watkins can be reached at pwatkins12@comcast.net.
A U G U S T 2013 | O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E
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