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CUTTING REMARKS
John D. Kelly IV, MD
Take Those Rules and Shove Them
Here are 5 operating room regulations that just don't make sense.
was raised to respect authority and obey the rules of the land, but
the rules and regulations of the OR have become burdensome. Yes,
I know surgeons today get sued BID, but let's get real.
1. Surgical consent. I love when a case gets delayed because the consent wasn't filled out properly. 'L' or 'R' can never stand for LEFT or
RIGHT, respectively. Heaven forbid, someone may misinterpret 'L' for
LUCKY or LAST. Of course, the "lucky" shoulder is really lucky to have the
surgery at this fine facility! Even more irksome is when I get called for
an "incomplete" consent. Yes, I tend to make my consents rather terse,
but last time I checked ROTATOR CUFF REPAIR meant exactly that.
Nowadays I get dinged for not adding POSSIBLE SPUR EXCISION. Ouch. Last
I checked, that was a routine part of the procedure!
2. Pregnancy test. The serum HCG is indeed important. Anesthesia
risks to a fetus are truly of great potential consequence. However, the
enforcement of this test can sometimes teeter on craziness. Recently,
I was attempting to perform a minor
procedure on a woman advanced in
years. No general, just sedation. I was
not allowed to proceed without the
HCG results. Truth was, the woman's
last menstrual period was March
1997. I won't state her age, but her
Social Security Number was 7. Her driver's license was in Latin. Gimme a
break!
3. The time out. Unless the entire team utters all
the key words of the time out, we all can get
dinged by the compliance police. When I recite
I
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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 | D E C E M B E R 2013
