To learn more about concurrent surgeries, visit our home for Globe coverage of the issue. I think its a fact that most patients would be uncomfortable with their doctor doing two operations simultaneously.. In September 2022, Mass Generals Orthopaedic Trauma Service was chosen to host the inaugural class of the Orthopaedic Trauma Associations Roy Sanders Traveling Fellows. Your actions have been extraordinarily disruptive to the orthopaedic surgery department, Slavin wrote Burke. Burke then began trading e-mails with Torchiana, the tough, confident leader known simply as Torch. Burke bemoaned the reckless behavior by some of my colleagues and worried that his warnings were being downplayed. With more than 25 years of experience in academic orthopaedic surgery, Mitchel B. Harris, MD, has been named chief of the Department of Orthopaedics at Massachusetts General Hospital, effective October 1, 2017. MGH, in a statement, said the vascular surgeon did not plan to do two procedures at once, but responded appropriately to an unexpected emergency.. If thats the case, I feel deceived, Meng, who has not returned to his job as a financial analyst since the 2012 operation, said in an interview. 617-724-8636 Request an appointment. After other surgeons cut open a patients chest, DeBakey would come in, put the patient on a special blood-circulating machine, and then bypass blocked coronary arteries with blood vessels taken from the patients body. Free Vascularized Fibula Graft with Femoral Allograft Sleeve for Lumbar Spine Defects After Spondylectomy of Malignant Tumors, Modified En Bloc Spondylectomy for Tumors of the Thoracic and Lumbar Spine. OR 21 and OR 30. He arrived stressing the need to reduce surgical complications generally and walked into the debate over the safety of double-booking. She said she finally found the doctor in room 25 doing the ankle procedure and asked him to come assist Shervin. See some of our current research publications. After a hard-fought political and he is the renown orthopedic surgeon who has led the hip and knee service at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston for over 20 years. Most recently, he served at MGH as the Interim Department Chair of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery and Chief of the Center for Hip and Knee Replacement. Is it right, some MGH medical staff asked, for surgeons to divide their attention between two operating rooms especially when the patients dont know? Please complete our confidential survey. Slavin would not share it with the Globe or government regulators. Wollman, Burke, and Sunder, in separate interviews, all also said Lillemoe cautioned that it would be draconian to ban surgeons from double-booking altogether. Chief, Orthopedic Surgery Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital . The older doctor grabbed Burkes arm, as Burke recounts it, and spoke a few chilling words: You will never be forgiven. Previously, Dr. Harris served as the chief of the Orthopaedic Trauma Service at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH). It was Dr. Nina Shervin, a fifth-year resident for whom Burke was a trusted mentor, calling in tears about an elderly woman in great pain; her newly replaced hip had dislocated twice. The General Hospital Corporation. Is this how we are planning the future?. 5 Soon state regulators were investigating concurrent surgeries done by several orthopedic surgeons, eventually focusing on 31 double-booked surgeries, according to a letter sent in November 2014 by the medical board to the Department of Public Health. Wood announced plans to leave for Stanford University this fall. Generals president, said during an interview in the hospitals historic Bulfinch Building. Dr. Hornicek completed his clinical fellowship in orthopaedic oncology at the MGH in 1997 and is a leader in the fields of tissue banking, allograft transplantation, and cell membrane biology. Our hospital is being crucified for something that happens at hospitals across the globe, Wood said. SlavinPeter L. Slavin, M.D.MGH president, in a hand-delivered Aug. 12 letter, accused Burke of improperly providing hundreds of the surgeons own medical records to the Globe, violating hospital rules and, potentially, federal privacy law, even though the records Burke shared had names and other identifying details blacked out. The Brighams chief of surgery, Dr. Michael Zinner, recently said he scolded a new surgeon at his hospital who violated the rule. I will spotlight the many significant contributions by the orthopaedic staff at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). Thats when he bumped into Dr. W. Gerald Austen, the 85-year-old retired chief of surgery and a founder of Partners HealthCare, the parent company of MGH. Burke is a zealot on the issue and makes no apology for it. Did you approve this? To document his case, Burke blacked out identifying information about patients and gave the records to the Spotlight Team saying, Dont take my word for it.. He began the meeting by reminding the men of the obvious, that Mass. Don wanted to get back to a pain-free life. 5 Blossom St
State Attorney General Maura Healeys office is also looking into the matter, and prosecutors have contacted Burkes former colleagues. He knew it was probably a breach of protocol, but he divulged his worries to Ronald Skates, a friend and former computer company executive. In court papers, a medical expert hired by Jenks disputed the hospital account, noting that Wood was listed as the surgeon in charge of a second case that completely overlapped Jenkss. James P. Rathmell, M.D., Susan A. Vassallo, M.D. Burke says he told her it might be unethical to take over another doctors case but, in his mind, the needs of a patient in distress trumped that concern. The group has successfully integrated with the numerous services that are needed to treat complex oncologic patients. But, this is a separate issue. Burke would soon find out exactly what Austen, who declined to comment, had warned of. We don't rush your visits. Phone: 617-726-9111
He then returned to the University of Michigan, where he was promoted to the rank of Assistant Professor of Orthopedic Surgery and was later named Chief of Adult Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Michigan Hospitals and Chief of Orthopedics at the Ann Arbor VA Medical Center. Mengs nerve signals began to fade at this point. He was recently promoted to full professor at Harvard Medical School. Stern, with a Partners attorney usually by his side, conducted dozens of confidential interviews over several months to look into allegations of patient harm, billing problems, and what double-booking critics considered a culture of intimidation at the hospital. Vivek Babaria, DO, RMSK has joined DISC Sports & Spine Center as its first osteopathic physician. Schedule a same day virtual visit when you experience a sports injury. While a senior resident at the University of Michigan, Dr. Freiberg did a rotation at MGH and he went on to complete the Hip and Implant Fellowship there. General proved particularly receptive to the time-saving potential of concurrent surgeries. When something goes wrong as statistically it will in a small percentage of cases the surgeons failure to disclose double-booking can seem to patients inexplicable and intolerable. But then, one Saturday night in June 2008, the phone rang in his home. They shared with the Globe a 2015 letter from the executive director of the American College of Surgeons who reviewed the guidelines at MGHs request and deemed them an example of best practice and certainly exceed national standards.. Produced by Russell Goldenberg, Gabriel Florit, Elaina Natario, Scott LaPierre, Emily Z. Fortier, David Butler. Membrane protecting spinal cord. A hole in the front side of the protective membrane allowed Mengs spine to bend and protrude, potentially causing his paralysis. We want to get you back to doing the things you love. Other authorities see real utility in the practice. Mortality Following Surgical Management of Vancouver B Periprosthetic Fractures. He had a daunting task ahead of him and perhaps an even more formidable opponent. collected, please refer to our Privacy Policy. development of orthopaedic biomaterials and joint registry data. Rubash, in an interview, said concurrent surgery did not become more common during his tenure. 50th President of the CSRS, Dr. Babaria Joins DISC Sports & Spine Center, Michael Kelly, M.D. Burke reacted with outrage at having his integrity questioned. Brigham and Women's Hospital . Down the hall in room 64 was Woods other patient, an elderly woman awaiting her own complex surgery, a spinal fusion that would also require precise work spanning much of the day. Ron is so worked up that he doesnt know whether to go to the Boston Globe or the FBI about this stuff, Torchiana told Burke, according to Burkes notes, which he gave to the Globe. to analyze our web traffic. The department, after a one-day inspection this past February during which investigators examined records and interviewed four ranking staff members, but not Burke, issued a report saying it had found nothing wrong. Wood first went in through the front of Mengs neck and removed parts of vertebrae. At Lahey Hospital & Medical Center, you can trust our orthopedic surgeons to provide expert, personalized and compassionate care. Dr. Bridwell is an internationally renowned, board-certified orthopedic surgeon and serves as the J. Albert Key Distinguished Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine. The first is the education of surgeons, residents, fellows, and even the sales force. Raj Gala, M.D. Can you imagine, Burke wrote to Ann Prestipino, senior vice president of surgical and anesthesia services, in March 2012, the harm that will occur to this institutions reputation if it were to be discovered that this patients surgery was double booked?, Prestipino, in her response, sought to reassure Burke: The policy for working out of two rooms is in the process of revision under the leadership of Dr. Lillemoe, our new Surgeon-in-Chief.. Meng wouldnt know until long after he woke up in a recovery room following the 11-hour operation to hear a medical resident say, Mr. Burke said Bhattacharyya had lost the right to take care of the patient by being inattentive during the initial operation. Thanks, Sunder. Second, I will be involved in quality and safety evaluations and health hazard evaluation of medical devices, something I have done for many years outside of industry. The General Hospital Corporation. This event will be livestreamed. Wood, chief of MGHs orthopedic spine service at the time and a nationally renowned practitioner in his specialty, is a confident, veteran surgeon. We use cookies and other tools to enhance your experience on our website and
Double booking is fine, if done properly, and our policy will change the practice at the MGH. Any senior resident who could hold a knife could have done it, Phan said. Meng relied on the surgeons unambiguous-seeming promise before the operation. He threatened me verbally, and he threatened he was going to have me fired, and what was I doing to his girl, Rubash said. Dr. Lillemoe, a genial native of a small town in South Dakota, came to Mass. What can patients rightly expect of their doctors? They discovered his spinal cord had somehow bent at an acute angle and was protruding through a hole in the dura, the tough membrane that encases the spinal cord where Wood had first operated the morning before. Rather, such cases are handled in successive stages, with the surgeon devoting himself to a section of one patients case, then moving on to the other. She told Burke her understanding was that the patient might have to wait days for surgical relief. Read the draft version. His name is Andrew Freiberg, M.D. Wood said he handled all the critical parts of Mengs surgery, and MGH says he acted appropriately within the accepted standard of care. Thats the most appropriate utilization of this concurrent surgery not having two cases going exactly at the same time and the surgeon bouncing back and forth between the two, said Kirk. Ninety-two years later, in 2019, Zimmer Biomet has hired a single person to serve as the companys Chief Medical Officer. When people in medicine trace the origin of overlapping surgery, one name invariably comes up: Dr. Michael DeBakey. The most extensive analysis of concurrent surgery was presented last year when a surgical resident at the University of Virginia Health System released a study not yet published that found no difference in short-term outcomes for patients and only minimal increases in surgery length when cardiothoracic surgeries overlapped by up to 45 minutes under closely monitored conditions. Dr. Christopher M. Bono is a board-certified, fellowship-trained adult spine surgeon in the Orthopaedic Spine Center at Massachusetts General Hospital. MGHs charges for Woods services that day totaled about $73,000, according to copies of the bills provided to the Globe by Mengs attorneys at the Boston law firm Lubin & Meyer. Its not fun to deal with this on a daily basis, Sunder said in an interview. It is unfortunate, the hospital said in a written statement, that a well-respected surgeon would cause a massive violation of patient confidentiality policies by copying hundreds of patient records and sharing them with the Boston Globe.. Let us help you navigate your in-person or virtual visit to Mass General. Sitemap Privacy Policy, Winner of the MORE Award in Journalistic Excellence in Orthopedics. The General Hospital Corporation. I spoke with Harry and the Kirk about this some time ago. We are committed to providing expert caresafely and effectively. No, this should be fine, Bhattacharyya said, according to Shervins account. We offer diagnostic and treatment options for common and complex medical conditions. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Then in April 2011, Skates helped arrange a meeting with Burke and Torchiana and the three of them gathered in Torchianas office on the second floor of the Bulfinch Building at 6:30 a.m. Torchiana was not about to simply bow to Burkes demands. Bhattacharyya was part of Mass. Patients would have to authorize such comment by the hospital, and only one of those who spoke to the Globe agreed to do so. Before training here, Dr. Hornicek earned his Ph.D. in physics/biophysics from Georgetown University in 1983, and his M.D. The Chief will . Meng awoke from the surgery unable to move his arms or legs. Our Orthopedics Team Jessica P. Aidlen, MD Chief of Spine Surgery Specialty:Spine Surgery Location: Ambulatory Care Center 159 Wells Ave, Newton, MA Phone: (617) 831-7082 Kyle Alpaugh, MD Specialty:Joint Replacement Location: Kaplan Joint Center, 2014 Washington St, Nothing in the medical record indicates that Mengs sudden paralysis a known risk of the surgery had anything to do with Woods decision to juggle his care with another patients for about seven hours. Let me know. Thats when, Vassallo said, she did something for the first time in 25 years of medicine: She went looking for the surgeon. That resident worked on the 2008 hip surgery case that first raised concerns for Burke about double-booking. Explore fellowships, residencies, internships and other educational opportunities. It is, however, hard to verify the comparison as some of those peer institutions, such as The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Stanford University Medical Center, and Mayo Clinic, declined to provide the Globe with copies of their policies or to discuss them in detail. MRI results came in after midnight and confirmed that something was very wrong. Joseph H. Schwab, MD, MS. Chief, Orthopaedic Spine Surgery. Both agencies declined to comment. General in May 2011 after a distinguished career as a pancreatic cancer surgeon and surgeon-in-chief at Indiana University Hospital. BostonMA, 02114, Wyndham Hotel - Beacon Hill
Bitter internal debates about concurrent surgeries have erupted in recent years at medical institutions in Chicago, Milwaukee, Nashville, and Syracuse, and have led to litigation. I am absolutely thrilled for Dr. Freuberg on his new role. Step away from the bed, VassalloSusan A. Vassallo, M.D.Anesthesiologist said she insisted. Elliot Bracket (1911-1918), Robert Bailey Osgood (1919-1922), Marius Smith-Petersen Check appointments, communicate with your provider and pay bills online 24/7. General. Double-booked surgery patients often didnt at the time, and sometimes still do not. Orthopedics in some ways is well suited to the practice, proponents say, because many procedures unfold in fairly predictable fashion, allowing surgeons to plan their movements with reasonable precision. Dr. Mark Vrahas, chief of Partners orthopedic trauma service, met with a patient in a holding room just before a surgery one morning about five years ago. Today, Mass. Jenks had publicly accused his surgical team of botching the surgery, failing to smooth a sharp place on his spine that sliced me open after the surgery and, he believes, ended his career. But the Meng case also highlights what critics of double-booking find alarming: Surgeries dont always unfold as they are expected to. But the Globe, through dozens of interviews and a review of hospital records, court filings, and hundreds of e-mails shared by current and former medical staffers, pieced together a portrait of this remarkable and revealing episode, one which changed surgical practice and procedure at the hospital and resulted in double-booking being raised as an issue in malpractice lawsuits. Michael Daubs, M.D. General orthopedics but did not study whether concurrent surgery played a role in the departments success. Our spine team sees patients at these locations: Mass General - Boston55 Fruit StreetYawkey Center for Outpatient Care, Suite 3ABoston, MA 02114, Orthopaedics at Mass General Waltham52 Second AvenueBuilding 52, 1st Floor, Suite 1150Waltham, MA 02451, Newton-Wellesley Spine Center159 Wells AvenueNewton, MA 02459, Mass General/North Shore Center for Outpatient Care102-104 Endicott StreetDanvers, MA 01923, BW / Mass General Health Care Center20 Patriot PlaceFoxborough, MA 01923. SunderNeelakantan Sunder, M.D.Anesthesiologist would later retire, in part because he was fed up with the battle over double-booking. Dr. Mark Price, a fellow in the orthopedics department, had accidentally sliced a blood vessel during a complex shoulder operation in late 2008, and the patient was quickly losing blood, according to Dr. Neelakantan Sunder, an anesthesiologist, and Jane Hardiman, a certified nurse anesthetist, who were working on the case and present in the room. Gregory was startled at the news, as was the judge in his malpractice suit against Wood. After Skates left, Torchiana pulled Burke aside and said it was wrong to involve a trustee in this matter. Watch the video to hear Dr. Schwab discuss the importance of the multidisciplinary care that orthopaedic oncology patients receive . Surgeons are encouraged and expected to tell patients when theyll be absent for part of the surgery, an MGH spokeswoman said, but they are not explicitly required to do so. As an assistant stitched up the patient, DeBakey would scrub into the next operating room, where another open chest awaited him. Dr. Wood was listed as the attending surgeon for a second procedure at the same time he operated on former Red Sox pitcher Bobby Jenks. I am surprised to find this out from the schedule. Third, and possibly most exciting, is that I get to participate in product innovation, licensing, and acquisition as they relate to new technology., I think it is very helpful that Zimmer Biomet now has an orthopedic surgeon in a leadership role who can communicate across all of the different business units. General has revised its patient consent form over the years, doubling its length to roughly 500 words in the version printed last October. Director, Harvard Combined Orthopaedic Residency Program . What will you tell this quadriplegic man and his family when they ask if his paralysis could have been prevented by having his surgeon be attentive only to him during his surgery? Burke wrote in an e-mail copied to senior leaders at MGH and Partners. Do you really think it reasonable to do these two cases by the same primary surgeon? Some surgeons might have awakened Meng to make sure he could still move, but Wood later testified he decided the risk that Meng would thrash and hurt himself was too great. Your resident needs your help.. Get the latest news, explore events and connect with Mass General. If you have any questions, contact Megan Leelman at
In addition to his leadership role in trauma, he spent 14 years serving as an active member of the Orthopaedic Spine Service at BWH and initiated a weekly multidisciplinary spinal oncology meeting. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Mitchel+b+harris, Mass General Hosts Orthopaedic Trauma Associations Inaugural Traveling Fellows, Mass General orthopaedic surgeons ranked among Top Doctors in Boston, MD, University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago, Residency, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Residency, Sunnybrook & Women's College Health Sciences Centre, Fellowship, University of Toronto, Sunnybrook Health Science Center, Orthopaedic Surgery, American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery, Great-West Healthcare (formally One Health Plan), Outcomes of the Management of Spinal Disorders: Operative and Nonoperative, Outcomes of Geriatric Spinal Fracture Management, Stem Cell Augmentation of Fracture Healing. Our orthopaedic specialists see patients at many locations, including Boston, Waltham, Danvers, Newton-Wellesley and Foxborough. Orthopedics Spine Surgeon or Neurosurgeon, Is There a Difference? But what had come of it? , but offered little direction on which procedures are appropriate for double-booking, what are the key or critical parts, and how much overlap of cases is safe and ethical.
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