2k+ surgeries a year sounds impressive.
Until you do the math.
That's 8 surgeries a day.
Every single day.
No vacations.
No slow weeks.
No time to breathe.
So when does that surgeon actually talk to you?
When do they sit down and examine your knee with their hands?
When do they compare it to your other knee?
When do they review your MRI themselves instead of skimming a radiologist's report between cases?
They don't.
Their PA does your intake.
Their medical assistant handles your pre-op questions.
Their nurse returns your calls.
You meet the surgeon for five minutes in a rushed appointment where they confirm what their staff already told you.
Then you're unconscious on a table with someone you barely know cutting into your body.
And when something goes wrong?
You're calling an office full of people who weren't in the room.
The surgeon is already eight cases deep into the next day.
You're yesterday's problem.
This isn't bad luck.
This is the system working exactly as designed.
Surgeons are paid by volume.
Insurance reimbursements keep dropping every year.
The only way to maintain revenue is to do more cases in less time.
So that's what they do.
They optimize for throughput.
They hire staff to handle everything except the 45 minutes they spend in the OR.
And here's the part that should make you angry: the incentive structure actually rewards bad outcomes.
A surgeon who rushes a case and causes a complication gets to operate on you again.
Bills insurance again.
Gets paid again.
There's no penalty for sloppy work.
There's a financial reward.
The nurses know this.
The PAs know this.
The surgical techs who hand instruments to these guys every day know this.
They see the wounds closed too fast.
The corners cut.
The patients who come back six months later for revision surgery that shouldn't have been necessary.
High volume is not high quality.
High volume is a business model.
You deserve a surgeon who knows your name. Who examined you with their own hands. Who will answer the phone when something doesn't feel right.That surgeon doesn't exist at 2000 cases a year. It's physically impossible to provide that level of care at that pace.
Do the math.
Then choose accordingly.
hashtag#surgeons
Until you do the math.
That's 8 surgeries a day.
Every single day.
No vacations.
No slow weeks.
No time to breathe.
So when does that surgeon actually talk to you?
When do they sit down and examine your knee with their hands?
When do they compare it to your other knee?
When do they review your MRI themselves instead of skimming a radiologist's report between cases?
They don't.
Their PA does your intake.
Their medical assistant handles your pre-op questions.
Their nurse returns your calls.
You meet the surgeon for five minutes in a rushed appointment where they confirm what their staff already told you.
Then you're unconscious on a table with someone you barely know cutting into your body.
And when something goes wrong?
You're calling an office full of people who weren't in the room.
The surgeon is already eight cases deep into the next day.
You're yesterday's problem.
This isn't bad luck.
This is the system working exactly as designed.
Surgeons are paid by volume.
Insurance reimbursements keep dropping every year.
The only way to maintain revenue is to do more cases in less time.
So that's what they do.
They optimize for throughput.
They hire staff to handle everything except the 45 minutes they spend in the OR.
And here's the part that should make you angry: the incentive structure actually rewards bad outcomes.
A surgeon who rushes a case and causes a complication gets to operate on you again.
Bills insurance again.
Gets paid again.
There's no penalty for sloppy work.
There's a financial reward.
The nurses know this.
The PAs know this.
The surgical techs who hand instruments to these guys every day know this.
They see the wounds closed too fast.
The corners cut.
The patients who come back six months later for revision surgery that shouldn't have been necessary.
High volume is not high quality.
High volume is a business model.
You deserve a surgeon who knows your name. Who examined you with their own hands. Who will answer the phone when something doesn't feel right.That surgeon doesn't exist at 2000 cases a year. It's physically impossible to provide that level of care at that pace.
Do the math.
Then choose accordingly.
hashtag#surgeons
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