Dear Patient Series (1)

Dear Patient (USA),

If you have a condition that can be well treated by a risky surgery, and if your surgeon is willing to do the surgery and he/she is a capable experienced surgeon, he/she may get punished harshly to the extent of threatening the surgeon's career if the surgery is done, and resulted in a complication.  Surprised?  Well, physicians, particularly surgeons in community hospitals, are under tremendous pressure to avoid complications.  Complications cost the hospitals money, sometimes lots of it. Your chronic pain, despair, etc, if you do not undergo surgery, will not cost the hospital a dime, and will not show in any of the "quality" measures that hospitals use.  Some hospitals use quality measures not to discuss improving quality in a constructive manner, but mainly as a tool to get rid of certain doctors.  Remember, the immunity extended to the peer review process does not differentiate a good-faith from a bad-faith process.  All are just as protected.

Yours,
Shammed Doc