I understand your perspective, but the rationale back then was that a surgeon needed to be ready to be awakened at 2am to go into the hospital to perform an operation that may take 4 to 5 hours; after working a full 12 to 14 hours day prior, starting surgery by 6:30am or so, maybe getting home for dinner by 7 or 7:30pm.
The training is not the same today, and I’d much prefer an old-school surgeon in the middle of the night than a younger one who trained under the new restrictions.
I’m in the aircraft-instrument business.
About 20 years ago, a guy on another project in my department was clocking 100-110 hours per week.
There was a fair amount of quiet discussion about “How much useful work can he be doing?”. And this is in a line of work where if you screw-up, someone else will normally catch it later on in the development process.
If a doctor has to get up at 2AM to be at the hospital before the dawn for an operation, they ought to be out the door by mid-afternoon so they be in bed by a reasonable hour.
How many iatrogenic complications were introduced by surgeons working 120-hour weeks?
After 32 years in practice, I left 6 weeks ago to retire at age 59. The partners I left behind have never been so discouraged by the future of medical care. We all worked in a health care “system” that bought into all the changes and is doing all in its power to assure compliance with everything the government spits out. In the process, they have set up a “corporate compliance” department that answers only to the board of directors comprised of a few physicians, health care administrators, and civilians. This department has become essentially a Gestapo and is run by a couple of attorneys who, I swear, must hate physicians. Now there is no room for anything for standardization of processes, excruciating compliance with government mandates, and “scorecards” rating physician performance. It’s enough to make you puke and the ethical decision making is strictly done on the basis of reimbursement for the organization.
The new docs are amazing to watch. Terrifying. Most of them started on robots.
Hubby had neck surgery a couple of years ago by one of the great spine surgeons in Los Angeles. He spent the night in the hospital the day before surgery and I got up bright and early and went down there since they never gave us a time.
The surgeon was there at 6 am and started doing surgeries. They finally started on hubby about 8 pm if I remember right. I definitely remember the doc waking me up at midnight to tell me that he was done and okay. Doc laughed when I said......darn, aren’t you tired? He said....this was a short day. He does surgeries twice a week and those are typical surgery days.
Hubby had neck surgery a couple of years ago by one of the great spine surgeons in Los Angeles. He spent the night in the hospital the day before surgery and I got up bright and early and went down there since they never gave us a time.
The surgeon was there at 6 am and started doing surgeries. They finally started on hubby about 8 pm if I remember right. I definitely remember the doc waking me up at midnight to tell me that he was done and okay. Doc laughed when I said......darn, aren’t you tired? He said....this was a short day. He does surgeries twice a week and those are typical surgery days.