Pre Op down and Anesthesia requests

[Sandie]

OK, had the Pre Op visit and they were running 1 1/2 hrs late but once I was in there, it was very efficient, a nurse interviewed me carefully, EKG and Blood work was done in that room but a Medical Assistant. The only problem came when I told the nurse "I want a Staff Attending MD to do the Anesthesia, not nurse anesthetist, not a resident or fellow" The nurse did not give me the speech about "this is a teaching hospital", I made it clear as well that "I am not a teaching subject, none of my procedure including anesthesia can be used as educational/teaching." Well she said she would have someone come in and talk to me and a very nice woman came in and said, what can we do to make you happy. Ah it is not about happiness, it is about getting through this without being a teaching model of some sort. I want an experienced, staff, attending Anesthesiologist! She told the nurse to send and email to Anesthesia that "she wants and experienced person" NO, I said I wanted a Staff, Attending, Anesthesiologist! I thnk I made myself clear. The nurse said afterward, "there are plenty of patients to have these students, residents to learn on." I will be vigilant to make sure my wishes are followed, if I need to sign an anesthesia consent form I will put on it, " I AM NOT AN EDUCATIONAL SUBJECT, NONE OF MY PROCEDURE SHOULD BE USED FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES AND ONLY DR X IS TO DO THE SURGERY AND CAN ONLY BE ASSISTED BUT AT NO TIME CAN SOMEONE ELSE BE CONSIDERED DOING THE SURGERY, ANESTHESIA IS TO BE ADMINSTERED AND MONITORED BY A BOARD CERTIFIED ANESTHESIOLOGIST MD." This may delay by a few minutes my surgery but I feel strongly about our rights as patients to have the best at all times. I chose my surgeon after much research, why should I accept a student of sorts to do my anesthesia, the surgery can be a success and you can die due to a mistake of anesthesia. WE should be able to chose our anesthesia doc as we do our surgeon, not sure why, in this country, we are relagated to having one thrown at us without us being able to vet their credentials, makes me crazy. I am a medical provider(retired now) and it has been my quest for years to no avail. You all should INSIST on MD Anesthesiologist who is staff and NOT Resident or Fellow which means they are still training but are MDs. The nurse said to me, all our anesthesia is done by MDs, hoping I guess to satisfy me but of course I know that the Residents and Fellows are MDs but still learning, DO NOT LEARN ON ME please. It is our RIGHT as patients!!!

 

[Sandie]

Update, there was some push back and I was told, "you don't choose your pilot in and airplane and you can not choose your anesthesiologist" That if I wanted that I could go to a local hospital that is more likely to be able to accomodate my request. I did not like that answer so looked up the Patients Rights in MA and at this particular hospital and it said A patient has the right to refuse to be observed, examined, or treated by a student or any other person without denial of clinical care. SO I emailed the Chief of Anesthesia and wrote him what I am requesting and what I was told and he wrote back that I will have a Board Cerfified Anesthesiologist and he appreciated my request for experience and Bd Certified Anesthesiologist. NOT a Nurse Anethetist, NOT a Resident and Not a Fellow. I know they have teaching programs for Residents and are dependent on the patients that come through but that does not mean we agree and they MUST have our consent to have students treating us and Residents and Fellows are really still students, learning, just more and more educated students. No longer a student when Board Certified and graduated from their residency!
Anyone else feel similarly? Anyone else have problems getting this done?

 

[Javajoy]

Sandie,

I, personally do not have a problem with Nurse Anesthetists, or with any student taking care of me. I am very familiar with the Anesthesiologists at my facility and they do oversee all surgeries. Having been a student myself I really appreciate the patients who always agreed to have us take care of them. Many of them request students because they actually get better care as the student is so scrutinized while doing the care. I understand your hesitancy and why you want a Board Certified Anesthesiologist and that is your choice and if that is what you want that is what you should get. I almost got to pick my Nurse Anesthetist but she was not available when I had my surgery. She was my daughter's friend and like I said there was a Board Certified Anesthesiologist present the whole time overseeing my surgery. I love teaching hospitals. In my opinion you get better care and more up to date care than in local community hospitals. Just my opinion, I haven't been in a large metropolitan area in a long time so things may be different. Joy

 

[Pat99]

Sandie-I have mixed feelings on this. All of my doctor's are affilaiated with the same teaching hospital system I use for surgeries and such. I have on occasion insist that the surgeon who I had my consult with do the surgery hands on and no one else. As far as I know my requests have been honored without me having to go through any drama whatsoever. I have no problems with a nurse anesthesist either. By the time they are allowed to hold a scalpel all of the MD's in training have had plenty of experience in my opinion and their egos's haven't developed into the God syndrome yet. Student's DO NOT perform surgery. When I had my RNY I chose to use a surgeon who had far less bariatric surgeries under his belt but he was board certified. He could have easily switched over to an open surgery instead of laproscopic because of the obstacles that were caused by a hernia surgery that I had last June. It took an additional 1 1/2 hours to complete my surgery and I know that had I chosen one of the more experienced surgeon's they would not have hesitated to slice me up like a salami so that they would not have to cancel the next surgery due to a time constraint. I'm just sayin'...