When you have a condition or injury requiring surgery, fear and nervousness must be quelled by the consideration and promise of your surgeon, showing that you are in good hands.
Unfortunately, not all surgeons are as capable as others. The skill and precision levels of a surgeon often decide the success and recovery time of a surgery.
In a recent New York Times article, many doctors who scrubbed in with two different surgeons noted extreme differences in accidents during the surgery, the elapsed time during the procedure, the amount of infections or complications following surgery, and the recovery time afterwards.
It has been clear for nearly 30 years not all surgeons produce the same results. For much of that time, however, many did not understand why. Most studies focus on surgeon behavior before and after the procedure, such as the application of antibiotics or administration of blood thinners.
Even by tightening up pre- and post-surgery protocols, however, it appears that discrepancies still exist.
Recent studies have found the difference—or so many in the medical field believe. The dexterity of a surgeon’s hands can account for many of the differences in how well patients do. The study is the first to reliably measure operative skills in practicing surgeons and identify correlations with patient outcomes.
This has huge implications on choosing a surgeon and identifying the likelihood of medical malpractice. For patients, being able to measure operative skill of a surgeon can help you to select the best option for your or a loved one’s procedure. In the past, the only measuring techniques available to a patient included board certifications, hospital statistics, where the surgeon trained, or word-of-mouth.
If you have questions about choosing a surgeon, or have suffered medical malpractice due the lack of capability by a surgeon, contact an experienced medical malpractice attorney right away for help.
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