Question for the resident healthcare expert

[Hawkmoon]

http://khn.org/news/double-booked-when-surgeons-operate-on-two-patients-at-once/

How common IS double-booking? I know I wouldn't agree to it. I was dismayed to find out that last year, when I had my gallbladder removed, the senior surgeon who was standing next to me in the surgery prep area and for whom I signed the consent form was NOT the surgeon who performed the operation. This was a VA hospital, so I assumed that the actual surgeon was a resident and that the senior guy was the "attending," and that he was there to supervise. Now I have to even question that.

So ... more things you have to remember to ask, and get in writing. It seems you can't trust anyone these days.

[MillCreek]

It is very common in academic and other training hospitals.  The residents and fellows have to get experience.  It also happens in anesthesiology when CRNAs are used.  You have one or two anesthesiologists that float around the ORs supervising the CRNAs and providing assistance where needed.

Surgical training has been done this way for well over a hundred years.

[Hawkmoon]

Surgical training has been done this way for well over a hundred years.

With the "attending" surgeon not even in the room?

I'm not at all sympathetic to that. Why have a "real" doctor assigned to the case at all? Why not just hand the resident a textbook and say, "Have at it. If you run into problems, see chapters 6 and 11."

[MillCreek]

With the "attending" surgeon not even in the room?

I'm not at all sympathetic to that. Why have a "real" doctor assigned to the case at all? Why not just hand the resident a textbook and say, "Have at it. If you run into problems, see chapters 6 and 11."

Depending on the experience level of the resident/fellow, the attending may be in the OR for the entire procedure, or only part of the procedure.  As they become more experienced, the resident/fellow does more and the attending does less.

[zxcvbob]

Did the absent surgeon bill you for being there?