Posted January 30, 2015 in Blog
Comments from North Dallas Plastic Surgery’s Dr. Todd A. Pollock:
The first step to fixing a problem is admitting that you have one. The United Kingdom’s leading authority on all things surgery, the Royal College of Surgeons, is proposing a bold rules change to address a problem that has been a dirty little secret of cosmetic surgery for a long time – doctors performing surgery outside of their training and scope of practice – often to the detriment of the patient. Like the UK, the current US rules allow a licensed physician to perform any surgical procedure they want, assuming they have: 1) a willing patient and 2) a surgical facility that will let them. An anesthesiologist can perform brain surgery if they have a willing patient and a place to do it.
Obviously that is an extreme example but since most cosmetic surgery procedures are performed on an outpatient basis and can be done in an office OR setting. Finding a place to perform surgery is often the biggest hurdle for those looking to work outside of their training and office surgery removes this obstacle. This opens the door to those physicians who want to get away from the increasingly burdensome and poorer reimbursements of health insurance and into the cash market of cosmetic surgery.
This has been kept on the down-low for a long time, considered by the powers-at-be to just be turf battles between specialties. However, time and a trail of patients injured by unqualified surgeons make this problem harder to ignore. New rules proposed by the Royal College seek to address this problem and protect patients by certify physicians for each procedure they perform and creating a register of physicians who provide evidence of their expertise. Unfortunately, the proposal is for this to be voluntary, not mandatory and policed as many feel is needed to really affect the problem.
What can you do?
While this is being hashed out across the pond and is still in the shadows in the US, the smart consumer seeking cosmetic surgery can take these steps to protect themselves. First, make an effort to confirm a surgeon’s quality through multiple sources, not just one friend. Look for board certification by an American Board of Medical Specialties board like the American Board of Plastic Surgery and be sure that the surgeon’s board is one relevant to the procedure you are seeking. For instance, board certification by the American Board of Otolaryngology may be appropriate for a facial procedure but should be suspect for a breast or body contouring procedure. And finally, be sure that doctor has hospital privileges to perform the procedure you seek even if it is planned to be done in an office setting. Hospitals will do the in-depth due diligence on a surgeon that the individual doesn’t have the knowledge or resources to perform.
Find out more about our thoughts for Dallas and Allen plastic surgery – especially why knowing about your surgeon’s credentials is important before you seek treatment: https://www.drpollock.com/about-the-practice/credentials-board-certification/ »
