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Before you have a procedure performed, ask your doctor a simple question: "How many times have you performed this procedure". What I have noticed doctors absolu

Before you have a procedure performed, ask your doctor a simple question: "How many times have you performed this procedure". What I have noticed doctors absolutely hate his question - I have witnessed doctors become visibly angry. I have never once had a doctor answer this question. I have heard answers from: "We don't keep those records" to "We don't keep totals". Are these records not kept? Why wouldn't this be public information? There must be practices with 0 performed procedures completed, and are you patient 1? How can doctors improve if they don't keep transparent numbers of procedures performed, procedures failed, procedures which were successful? "How can you define procedures failed?" - I can hear some say. But that is a discussion these professionals need to have to find incompetence hiding among their ranks.

wavegeek 9y ago
You should also ask "how often, recently?". I did ask my surgeon and he answered. But he is pretty exceptional in a number of ways.
gambiting 9y ago
The problem with this is that except for some really routine stuff, a lot of operations are really custom-tailored to the patient. This might be a 100th time the surgeon is removing a certain type of tumor, but first time doing it in an obese person, or a child, or someone with rare blood condition, or million other things. Once you get to the real life-saving stuff no two operations are the same, even though on paper they might seem like they are. That's why it's hard to put a number on it.
- taejo 9y ago
  Sure, but I'd rather have a stomach tumor removed by the surgeon who'd performed twenty custom-tailored stomach tumor removals in the last year than the one who'd done one. My opthalmologist used to do LASIK as part of her regular practice, before deciding it was better to refer patients to somebody who was doing the same type of operation over and over - probably getting five times as much practice or more.
- lightbyte 9y ago
  >This might be a 100th time the surgeon is removing a certain type of tumor I think this is all OP was asking about. They want to know if you've ever removed a tooth before, not if you've ever removed the right molar from a 27 year old very tall man who has a small jaw and bad breath.
deleted 9y ago
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hycaria 9y ago
Why would it matter ? Indeed what is failed, and how is the procedure responsible for it and not care observance (ie orthopedic or even cardiac procedures that should be associated with a loss of weight/exercise or whatever, who's at fault if patient does not follow his diet ? Is it a failed procedure because of the pratician or because of the patient ?), or even simple patient physiology. This question also makes me super angry because it really makes no sense whatsoever, and just comes from unreasonably suspicious patients who should probably just give up on using modern medicine if they can't trust a whole TEAM of doctors and caregivers. Procedures themselves are not even the riskiest thing compared to anesthesia or even post op care (hello nosocomial infections). Also most procedures are not rocket science either, in my experience surgery is more like a makeshift job than anything.
arkh 9y ago
You also want to check what the current state of the art is and if you really need your procedure right now. Personal example : a decade ago using ultrasound to remove thyroid nodules was at the clinical trial stage with good results. But surgeons were still in the mindset of "remove everything even if you could keep half your thyroid, and enjoy your levotirox". Now ultrasound are a go: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5434558/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5434558/ so if you bet on progress you won.

wavegeek 9y ago

You should also ask "how often, recently?". I did ask my surgeon and he answered. But he is pretty exceptional in a number of ways.

gambiting 9y ago

The problem with this is that except for some really routine stuff, a lot of operations are really custom-tailored to the patient. This might be a 100th time the surgeon is removing a certain type of tumor, but first time doing it in an obese person, or a child, or someone with rare blood condition, or million other things. Once you get to the real life-saving stuff no two operations are the same, even though on paper they might seem like they are. That's why it's hard to put a number on it.

taejo 9y ago
Sure, but I'd rather have a stomach tumor removed by the surgeon who'd performed twenty custom-tailored stomach tumor removals in the last year than the one who'd done one. My opthalmologist used to do LASIK as part of her regular practice, before deciding it was better to refer patients to somebody who was doing the same type of operation over and over - probably getting five times as much practice or more.
lightbyte 9y ago
>This might be a 100th time the surgeon is removing a certain type of tumor I think this is all OP was asking about. They want to know if you've ever removed a tooth before, not if you've ever removed the right molar from a 27 year old very tall man who has a small jaw and bad breath.

deleted 9y ago

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hycaria 9y ago

Why would it matter ? Indeed what is failed, and how is the procedure responsible for it and not care observance (ie orthopedic or even cardiac procedures that should be associated with a loss of weight/exercise or whatever, who's at fault if patient does not follow his diet ? Is it a failed procedure because of the pratician or because of the patient ?), or even simple patient physiology. This question also makes me super angry because it really makes no sense whatsoever, and just comes from unreasonably suspicious patients who should probably just give up on using modern medicine if they can't trust a whole TEAM of doctors and caregivers. Procedures themselves are not even the riskiest thing compared to anesthesia or even post op care (hello nosocomial infections). Also most procedures are not rocket science either, in my experience surgery is more like a makeshift job than anything.

arkh 9y ago

You also want to check what the current state of the art is and if you really need your procedure right now. Personal example : a decade ago using ultrasound to remove thyroid nodules was at the clinical trial stage with good results. But surgeons were still in the mindset of "remove everything even if you could keep half your thyroid, and enjoy your levotirox". Now ultrasound are a go: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5434558/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5434558/ so if you bet on progress you won.