This blogger simply continues with his inexorable exposé.
Back to Dr. Podolsky's letter.
9. The ACGME does not monitor billing compliance, or supervision. They look at work hours, lectures given, case loads, and they meet with residents in conference rooms and in private interviews. They give them surveys to answer about their program. When I last checked, the survey given to residents contained two questions about OR supervision. They were questions such as, "do you think you receive adequate supervision and support in the operating room."
The ACGME does not look at charts, records, or times when surgeons signed in and out of the OR. The ACGME has absolutely NOTHING to do with billing compliance. I do agree with that residents learn by doing. But the ACGME requires that whatever they do happens under appropriate supervision.
A faculty member cannot provide adequate supervision when they are sitting in their office two buildings away while major surgery is being performed on their patients, waiting to see if the residents are going to "consult" them during key and critical portions of the case.
10. I have to disagree with your last paragraph about patient care excellence. Look at Parkland's own resident supervision policies. It says that a second year resident can perform a radical mastectomy on a patient, as long as they are supervised by a third year resident, and there is someone more senior on campus whom they can call for a consultation, if they get into trouble. And once a resident reaches their fourth year, they can do a radical mastectomy on their own, with no faculty supervision. Compared to today's supervision requirements, these policies are medieval.
May I make a suggestion? Let the UTSW community read the news and watch television coverage, and formulate opinions on their own.
They don't really need the University President telling them what they should think.
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