Concurrent Surgeries in the Spotlight: Is it Safe To Run Two Operations at Once?

The Boston Globe Spotlight Team has exposed a practice at Massachusetts General Hospital of some leading orthopedic surgeons double-booking operating rooms in order to run "concurrent surgeries" — that is, having two patients in two operating rooms at once.

Is it right or safe for surgeons to run two operations at once? #MGH #Spotlight https://t.co/ZgY8eyjlwl pic.twitter.com/hhoUYfNFP4

— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) October 26, 2015

At the center of the issue is transparency — whether patients are clearly notified that their surgeon may not be present for the entire surgery — and, of course, the impact on patient safety. MGH claims the practice has not caused any patient harm...

"Still, the Spotlight Team found that the 2012 Meng case [represented by Lubin & Meyer] reignited an extraordinary, long-running controversy at one of the nation’s top-rated hospitals over the propriety and safety of a fairly common but little studied practice that goes to the heart of a doctor’s obligation to his unconscious patient. Is it right, some MGH medical staff asked, for surgeons to divide their attention between two operating rooms — especially when the patients don’t know? Can they really do two overlapping operations equally well?"

Link to the in-depth Boston Globe investigative team report and multimedia presentation at: Clash in the Name of Care.

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