One Surgeon's Call for True Informed Consent
Approximately 40 million people undergo surgery every year. Writing on KevinMD.com, Dr. Paul Ruggieri asks: How many of those patients are informed of their surgeon’s track record? Not many, he surmises.
In a refreshing post of what’s-good-for-the-goose-is-good-for-the-gander, Ruggieri, a surgeon, argues that unless patients have access to the same information about doctors that hospitals and insurers have, “informed consent” is a hollow proposition.
“Today’s medical (and legal) system intentionally blocks patient access to pertinent performance information,” Ruggieri writes, ‘information readily available to hospitals, insurance companies and federal government agencies.
“…I believe in total transparency in the surgical profession and it is time to open up the hospital/insurance company books and take a look at information the public is craving….”
Read his full post by linking here.
For more reading on this important topic of patients' rights to get all the information they need to make intelligent choices about what happens to their bodies, check out the informed consent page on our firm's website.
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