In my opinion it’s said “as a way of validation” that they picked the right person. That reassurance could be needed/used as a coping mechanism, or it could also be used in a worldly/materialistic/arrogant way to say “look at how special I am, I only use the best”.

This mindset applies to EVERYTHING in the world today, not just picking a surgeon. Picking the “BEST” mechanic, car salesman, gunsmith, restaurant with the best barbecue, doctor, lawyer, etc etc. We could go on forever. Is it wrong to always want the best, I don’t think so. However, realistically you will never get the best. How do you even measure who or what the best is, off of the patients or customers own personal experience? Well, that would be the most biased opinion there is. There are multiple “bests” at what they do not just one singular person most generally.

As with anything when related to this question, maybe the more telling response is asking someone in the a similar field/career who they would use. Once again, there is still some bias there but significantly less and I would personally weight their opinion more heavily as a colleague than as a customer/patient. Clearly there could be times where they are competing for your same business so an honest response may not be what’s given.

As was mentioned before magazine ads are simply that, paid advertisements. “Team doctors/surgeons” guess what, also paid advertisements. Those physicians pay those teams large sums of money to be “their” teams doctor. It’s all about advertising. Being good at advertising has no bearing on if you are good or not. Ever wonder how many professional athletes get second opinions and have surgeries done by a “non-team physician”. That’s why and it happens more frequently than it doesn’t.

Large academic medical centers, Mayo Clinic, John’s Hopkins, UT Southwestern, Brigham & Women’s, MD Anderson, Dallas Children’s, to name a few, are more equipped to perform the more advanced and more unusual procedures. This is where most of medical innovation and research occurs because of the funding, man power and space to do so. As with anything else, there are varying caliber of skilled professionals in these institutions just as there are in smaller community or rural institutions. Remember in the big academic centers, these are teaching hospitals, so resident physicians without much or any experience are also learning how to operate. So, there is more to it than maybe what you anticipated or are aware of.

The disadvantage for the patient is the lack of knowing how skilled or “good” your surgeon is where you live or where you have access to one. There isn’t a real clear cut way of knowing other than by asking around.

To answer the OP’s question specifically, in my opinion, there are 6 groups of people that can provide the best suggestion on which surgeon is “good or better, but never the best”, based on intraopertive skills and their post op outcomes.

1) another surgeon
2) anesthesiologist
3) surgical tech
4) operating room nurse
5) physical therapist if it’s an orthopedic or neurologist surgery
6) device rep

All of these people see and work with surgeons daily. They have multiple encounters and first hand experiences. If you can find one of them to ask, they may be of the most assistance.

As a caveat, all people make mistakes and there are always unknowns to an procedure. In todays society unfortunately, you are always judged or remembered by your small number of mistakes or poor outcomes than by you many many more successes. Sad sad world.

All this has caused me to think back to my 2 brain surgeries (being the patient, not the doctor). There’s a lot I don’t remember about all of that, and obviously if you don’t remember it, you can’t know what you forgot. Anyway, I had different doctors for the two surgeries, and I could not remember why we switched. I asked the wife, and it was her decision. She said the first doctor was, in her view, not good, and she wanted the other doc that had attended the surgery. A good decision, it seems. Years later, at a cocktail party, I met a nurse that was pretty sure she had been involved in my first surgery. She referred to that first doctor as “the butcher”, and said the nurses called him that. My point here is that even in a place like Methodist Hospital, in the Houston Medical Center, there are below par doctors.

I remember my first meeting with that first doctor. I was playing solitaire in my hospital bed and eating M&Ms. He came in and said they’d operate at a certain time. He said they’d have to clamp off the carotid on my left side, which would cause me to have a stroke and partially disable me. And I’d lose my left eye. Scared, I asked what if we just didn’t do the operation. He said, “then you’ll die”, and he walked out of the room.

Well, I still have the eye and never did get partially paralyzed, and I still like M&Ms. And I no longer have nervous issues when I drive in the medical center, but I did for years. I still have some minor emotional leftovers from that time, when I thought my nice little life was over, but it does help a bit to talk about it, which I just did. Thanks for listening.

Trust me….it had plenty of dirt on it…and grease, WB mud, and who knows what else off that rig floor…

Maybe just the doctor's offices I have been in but I have noticed that most of the administrative staff and some of the nurses are over weight.

Fat shamer!

Because saying the alternative, “ I decided to have surgery and there was this one doctor that is the best; but I decided to go to my dog catcher to have the operation.” Doesn’t sound good or like you have brains. And usually if it turns out bad like he removed your gonads when he was supposed to remove your gallbladder; people don’t bring that up in conversation.

LMAO.......I saw a fat person at the bank. What's your point? Fat people work there, so they're?????????

His point is simple; fat people can see the knife below their waist line; they kinda guess.

Exactly.

NEVER underestimate the power of positive thinking.

"My surgeon is terrible; he killed six patients and seriously maimed four. This procedure is gonna go terrible!" said no one ever.

"Oh! I have heard of him! He's the best!" says everyone a person with impending surgery talks to.

I went in for a pre-op sit down with a case manager before knee surgery. The visitors chair in front of her desk was huge, almost like a bench. To use the arm rests I would have had to simulate flight. I looked around the room, all the chairs were like that. I asked a stupid question, what's with the size of these chairs? Without hesitation her answer, "Have you noticed the size of most people that have health problems?"

He reached out to me and it is all good. I am a little over sensitive right now. So I over reacted

You didn't overreact.

No, he didn’t. I’m pretty red-arsed about the whole thing. I completely misstated what I was trying to convey and caused TLK an extra dose of hurt he didn’t need at a time he especially didn’t need it. I was at least smart enough to stop digging the hole and just shut up and take the well-deserved lumps from everyone. If anybody else feels the need to chime in, go ahead, it was deserved.

My hand surgeon is the exact opposite. He's done 3 surgeries on me and 2 on my wife. Great guy, funny, remembers everything about his patients, I was a 1 in 100k case result. Says he tells his students about me all the time. He's a PHD and teaches across the country. Most all of our other surgeons have been very self-assured, but I wouldn't say cocky. My wife's internal DR had a very short, to the facts, demeanor and I've only seen him smile once in many years. I remember my cancer oncologist, Chinese fellow, was so matter of fact in telling me they were going to be taking me to the point," just short of death", with my chemo and radiation treatments. Vivid memory of that exchange. He didn't lie.

I think you owned that pretty well. Says a lot about your character.

^^^^

Well done, QSYB.

Ya'll Stop Bickering or I will lock this post and delete it so fast it will make your head swim.........

Fair Warning, be nice to each other

This is a forum to help each other......

Our forums are family friendly. We moderate to promote a PG atmosphere. If you find your posts continually edited or you are regularly contacted by the moderators, the THF may not be the right place for you. There are plenty of 'anything goes' forums and other forms of social media out there to choose from. Don't give yourself a headache by fighting a system that is not what you are looking for in a forum. If you are looking for a little tamer place than the wild world of the Internet, you will probably enjoy this forum.

From God to JP to RedRanger to you other posters.......

I worked with a guy that had hemorrhoids real bad. He went to a proctologist. He said the guy had hands like a basketball player. He walked out and found an oriental proctologist.

TLK looked for a reason to get upset with you. Nothing in your statement was a “low life” comment directed at him or his daughter. He’s the one that posted on the thread. Don’t want someone to provide commentary? Don’t post on the thread discussing how people always think their doctors are the best with an inaccurate comment about how great they performed surgery.

Always spoilin' for a fight.

I am a long time member and contributor to this forum. But I have had enough. I am out for good. I will be asking the monitors of the site to please delete my account. I have better things to do in my life than listen to someone like you. Over and out

Don’t think it can be deleted.

You could go out with a blaze of glory with posts to get you perma-banned maybe? never to be permitted to be spoken of again on here.

nice. now post some pics of yur cookin!

RR is not a mod and cannot shut anything down. Sheldon is being a wanna be mod. TLK don't leave, we appreciate you and you post great things. Hater's flock to this type of thing and QSYB owned it like a man. Respect that and screw the clowns