OR Personnel

I was in the operating room a few days ago doing some procedures and a couple of things occurred which demonstrated the stupidity that has infiltrated the medical field. It also demonstrates the degree to which the legal profession has hamstrung the medical profession into the way we treat patients and in performing meaningless tasks which detract from patient care.

Besides the patient there are four professionals in the operating room. The surgeon, the anesthesiologist, the circulating nurse and the scrub tech (the person who assists the surgeon). The job of the nurse is to be available to the patient and the anesthesiologist throughout the procedure. In recent years all they have time to do is fill out the enormous volume of paperwork that must be completed for each procedure. In my case, a child was undergoing a procedure and the nurse was complaining that at the end of the procedure she had not yet completed her paperwork and was unable to help the patient. I do not blame her but I blame the lawyers who have created an atmosphere where everything has to be documented to such a degree in case anyone in the future needs to look back. More attention is paid to the paperwork than to the patient who is having surgery.

Due to the recent incidences of operations being performed on the incorrect side, the surgeon is asked to mark the site in the waiting room before entering the OR. My case involved an elderly gentleman who had a visible lesion on the outside of his ear. It was clearly evident to anyone who would look. The nurse asked me to mark the site. I said to her you must be kidding, the lesion is the mark. She agreed with me but told me this is the policy and I must comply. So here I was ridiculously making a mark next to a visible lesion to pacify some bureaucrat that created a policy to prevent lawsuits.

Although, the lawyers are supposed to institute changes which benefit the population, they have in certain circumstances created a system that forces that care to be diminished. We are so concerned with the threats of a lawsuit that our judgements are impaired and it is the patients that suffer. By instituting blanket policies it reinforces the belief not to use one's common sense but to create policies that dumb down everybody to pacify the lawyers.

In addition to the patient and the four professionals in the operating room I should truly add that invisible person that lurks in the shadows waiting to second guess, the patient's lawyer.