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fooferdoggie

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man I cant imagine a doctor doing this.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The Medical Board of California said it would investigate a plastic surgeon who appeared in a videoconference for his traffic violation trial while operating.

The Sacramento Bee reports Dr. Scott Green appeared Thursday for his Sacramento Superior Court trial, held virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic, from an operating room. He was dressed in surgical scrubs with a patient undergoing the procedure just out of view; the beeps of medical machinery can be heard in the background.
“Hello, Mr. Green? Hi. Are you available for trial?” asked a courtroom clerk as an officer summoned to appear in trial raised her eyebrows. “It kind of looks like you’re in an operating room right now?”

“I am, sir,” Green replied. “Yes, I’m in an operating room right now. Yes, I’m available for trial. Go right ahead.”

The clerk reminded Green the proceedings were being livestreamed because traffic trials are required by law to be open to the public, and Green said he understood. He appeared to continue working with his head down while waiting for Court Commissioner Gary Link to enter the chamber.

When Link appeared and saw the doctor on the screen, the judge hesitated to proceed with the trial out of concern for the welfare of the patient.

“I have another surgeon right here who’s doing the surgery with me, so I can stand here and allow them to do the surgery also,” Green said.

The judge said he didn’t think it was appropriate to conduct trial under the circumstances. He told Green he’d rather set a new date for trial “when you’re not actively involved or participating and attending to the needs of a patient.”

Green apologized.

“Sometimes, surgery doesn’t always go as,” he said before the judge interrupted him.

“It happens. We want to keep people healthy, we want to keep them alive. That’s important,” Link said.

The board said it would look into the incident, saying it “expects physicians to follow the standard of care when treating their patients.”

A call seeking comment from Green has not been returned.
 
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man I cant imagine a doctor doing this.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The Medical Board of California said it would investigate a plastic surgeon who appeared in a videoconference for his traffic violation trial while operating.

The Sacramento Bee reports Dr. Scott Green appeared Thursday for his Sacramento Superior Court trial, held virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic, from an operating room. He was dressed in surgical scrubs with a patient undergoing the procedure just out of view; the beeps of medical machinery can be heard in the background.
“Hello, Mr. Green? Hi. Are you available for trial?” asked a courtroom clerk as an officer summoned to appear in trial raised her eyebrows. “It kind of looks like you’re in an operating room right now?”

“I am, sir,” Green replied. “Yes, I’m in an operating room right now. Yes, I’m available for trial. Go right ahead.”

The clerk reminded Green the proceedings were being livestreamed because traffic trials are required by law to be open to the public, and Green said he understood. He appeared to continue working with his head down while waiting for Court Commissioner Gary Link to enter the chamber.

When Link appeared and saw the doctor on the screen, the judge hesitated to proceed with the trial out of concern for the welfare of the patient.

“I have another surgeon right here who’s doing the surgery with me, so I can stand here and allow them to do the surgery also,” Green said.

The judge said he didn’t think it was appropriate to conduct trial under the circumstances. He told Green he’d rather set a new date for trial “when you’re not actively involved or participating and attending to the needs of a patient.”

Green apologized.

“Sometimes, surgery doesn’t always go as,” he said before the judge interrupted him.

“It happens. We want to keep people healthy, we want to keep them alive. That’s important,” Link said.

The board said it would look into the incident, saying it “expects physicians to follow the standard of care when treating their patients.”

A call seeking comment from Green has not been returned.
Truth be told, there's a lot of downtime in the OR while surgeons are waiting for patients to finish prepping, so it's probably nothing that remotely compromised patient safety. Not a good look tho.
 

Thomas Veil

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Truth be told, there's a lot of downtime in the OR while surgeons are waiting for patients to finish prepping, so it's probably nothing that remotely compromised patient safety. Not a good look tho.
I'm sure you're right, but either the surgery or the court appearance could have been rescheduled. Not sure what this guy was thinking.
 
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I'm sure you're right, but either the surgery or the court appearance could have been rescheduled. Not sure what this guy was thinking.
Yup, bad optics. Though I have to tell you, the surgeons I know sleep very little (4-5H on average) and they prepare for work while most of us sleep. So when they use downtime creatively, they never do it at the expense of patient safety or the quality of their work. (My colleagues use this time to churn out research papers...insane outputs).
 

Clix Pix

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DEFINITELY not good optics here!!! I'm sure that there are all kinds of medical ethics codes and hospital practice standards that were violated while this guy was doing his thing in the OR with an anesthetized, unconscious patient on the table, even if other staff and another surgeon were also attending to the patient. Some of the time his attention had to have been pulled away from the patient while he was busy blathering away at the court clerk and the judge, assuring them that he was ready to move forward with his court appearance. Kudos to the judge for not allowing that to happen. Won't be surprised if this doc loses his hospital privileges at that particular facility/system and also even his medical license......

I really hope that the patient on that OR table actually got appropriate care and that his or her surgical procedure, whatever it was, went smoothly with no unfortunate issues afterwards. That patient really could have grounds for suing the surgeon for not really being fully present and attentive during the entire surgical process, if he or she learns that they are the individual who was on the operating table at the time..... Yes, we all know that surgeons like to play music during surgery, that the team sometimes jokes around, etc., but this particular situation seems to be carrying things way beyond that when the surgeon's attention is clearly not focused solely on what he is supposed to be doing in that OR.
 
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DEFINITELY not good optics here!!! I'm sure that there are all kinds of medical ethics codes and hospital practice standards that were violated while this guy was doing his thing in the OR with an anesthetized, unconscious patient on the table, even if other staff and another surgeon were also attending to the patient. Some of the time his attention had to have been pulled away from the patient while he was busy blathering away at the court clerk and the judge, assuring them that he was ready to move forward with his court appearance. Kudos to the judge for not allowing that to happen. Won't be surprised if this doc loses his hospital privileges at that particular facility/system and also even his medical license......

I really hope that the patient on that OR table actually got appropriate care and that his or her surgical procedure, whatever it was, went smoothly with no unfortunate issues afterwards. That patient really could have grounds for suing the surgeon for not really being fully present and attentive during the entire surgical process, if he or she learns that they are the individual who was on the operating table at the time..... Yes, we all know that surgeons like to play music during surgery, that the team sometimes jokes around, etc., but this particular situation seems to be carrying things way beyond that when the surgeon's attention is clearly not focused solely on what he is supposed to be doing in that OR.
All I see is that the guy's scrubbed in. Is he doing surgery?
 

Clix Pix

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According to the article I read in The Washington Post, yes, he was seen in the streaming video at times bent over the patient, although what he was actually doing was not shown. He also stated that there was another surgeon in the OR with him, and of course there were assorted technical personnel, nurses, etc., in the OR as well. IMHO it would have been appropriate for him to have either postponed his traffic court hearing to another time or to have stepped out of the OR, leaving the other surgeon to do whatever the procedure was, and conducted his personal business outside the OR, when he could devote his entire attention to the court hearing. He chose to do neither, which makes his judgement a a bit questionable.....
 
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According to the article I read in The Washington Post, yes, he was seen in the streaming video at times bent over the patient, although what he was actually doing was not shown. He also stated that there was another surgeon in the OR with him, and of course there were assorted technical personnel, nurses, etc., in the OR as well. IMHO it would have been appropriate for him to have either postponed his traffic court hearing to another time or to have stepped out of the OR, leaving the other surgeon to do whatever the procedure was, and conducted his personal business outside the OR, when he could devote his entire attention to the court hearing. He chose to do neither, which makes his judgement a a bit questionable.....
I'd have to see the video to make a judgement, TBH. Never mind, found it. This guy will get a LOT of heat from the Board of Physicians:

1614779920443.png


He won't lose his license because this is unlikely to have compromised patient safety (there's an operator and 1-2 assisting physicians and they can take turns at parts of surgery). It's an absurdly bad look though, and I too am kinda upset by this sight.
 

Clix Pix

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It really IS disturbing, isn't it?! Totally inappropriate and certainly not a good look, regardless of the fact that it probably did not compromise the patient's safety. Also it seems to me that if the patient (or his/her insurance) is paying for the procedure, there should not be a bill for surgical services performed by this guy! He was there physically, yes, but how much of the procedure did he actually perform and clearly his attention was not focused on the job he was in there to do.

He may not lose his license but I do think that there should be some consequences around this, as if nothing else it demonstrates unethical behavior and poor judgement. He might be censured but allowed to retain his medical license, or he may lose his privileges at the hospital or surgical center facility in which he was supposed to be performing surgical services.
 
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It really IS disturbing, isn't it?! Totally inappropriate and certainly not a good look, regardless of the fact that it probably did not compromise the patient's safety. Also it seems to me that if the patient (or his/her insurance) is paying for the procedure, there should not be a bill for surgical services performed by this guy! He was there physically, yes, but how much of the procedure did he actually perform and clearly his attention was not focused on the job he was in there to do.

He may not lose his license but I do think that there should be some consequences around this, as if nothing else it demonstrates unethical behavior and poor judgement. He might be censured but allowed to retain his medical license, or he may lose his privileges at the hospital or surgical center facility in which he was supposed to be performing surgical services.
He might be supervising a senior resident who did this surgery 50 times, etc. You never know, but I can guarantee that the hospital risk management are already all over this....
 

fooferdoggie

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He might be supervising a senior resident who did this surgery 50 times, etc. You never know, but I can guarantee that the hospital risk management are already all over this....
cover your ass and toss him to the wolves.
 
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