Many of you know that patient safety issues are very important to me. These issues make up a large portion of my work as Chief of Surgery and Vice President of Medical Affairs at Cambridge Memorial Hospital, and of course, patient safety is central to everything we do at my home away from the hospital, The Cosmetic Surgery Clinic in Waterloo.
Last week I attended the ASAPS (American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery) meeting in San Francisco. One of the great features of of this meeting is the wide variety educational courses that are offered.
I took 2 courses on patient safety and I was thrilled and surprised to see that much of the content delivered by the panel of world class plastic surgeons from around the globe was very similar to the issues I have been discussing at the Cambridge Memorial Hospital for the last 3 years, and the safety protocols we embrace every day at The Cosmetic Surgery Clinic.
One might think that patient safety issues would not be best discussed at a cosmetic surgery conference, that we would be too busy discussing breast augmentation and liposuction and face lift surgery. But the opposite is true!
As surgeons who very often run their own free standing, out of hospital surgical facilities, plastic surgeons are among the most informed and most diligent of all surgeons when it comes to matters of patient safety.
I guess rather than be surprised by aesthetic plastic surgeons discussing issues of patient safety, I should be (and I am!) proud of my plastic surgery colleagues. We will continue to lead the way when it comes to keeping surgical patients safe.
