HOW TO CHOOSE A PLASTIC SURGEON AND FACILITY FOR YOUR PROCEDURE
Cosmetic surgery is a field becoming increasingly popular, however, it is increasingly difficult to distinguish between the legitimately trained physicians and others. Unfortunately, my most educated patients I have found tend to be my revision patients that have done their research AFTER getting bad results from an untrained physician.
The goal of this page is to educate people about the importance of certification, IN plastic Surgery, and BY the American Board of Plastic Surgery recognized by the American Medical Association and The American Board of Medical Specialties as the only board to specifically train surgeons to perform Plastic Surgery. The goal of this page is to educate patients about the importance of holding hospital privileges and performing surgery in an accredited facility. This is not meant to market my practice specifically, and I always tell my clients that with careful research, you will find HUNDREDS of bona-fide trained cosmetic plastic surgeons in this area.
STEP ONE: BEFORE going to a consultation, you should have the right to know which doctor you will be meeting with. I use the word doctor rather than surgeon because many facilities, especially the ones with catchy and confusing corporate type names, do not have board certified plastic surgeons on staff.
Rather, they often rely on doctors performing surgical procedures who have not finished a formal United States Residency program in surgical technique or passed the rigorous examinations required to become board certified. Note that in an office setting, this is not illegal. The same doctor that would never be allowed by a hospital to come near a patient with a scalpel or invasive instrument has the right, in his or her office or in a office owned by that corporation, to carry out that same surgery if they hold a valid state license to practice medicine. This is a loophole in regulation.
Some of these doctors may even claim they are Board Certified, but they may be board certified in another field such as Neurology, Internal Medicine, Psychiatry, or Emergency medicine. Or they may be "board certified" by a non-AMA approved board that has been formed to give credibility to other similarly untrained doctors by the doctors themselves! Therefore the single most important steps you can take to protect yourself is
1) get the Doctor's name who you will be meeting with.
2) go to www.abms.org (american board of medical specialties).
3) check to see if they are listed. If they are not listed, they are not board certified by any of the 24 recognized official agencies. If they are listed, check the name of the board which gave them their certification so that you know what they actually are certIfied to perform.
DO NOT ACCEPT ANY EXCUSES OR "ALTERNATIVE" MEMBERSHIP IN DUBIOUS ORGANIZATIONS FROM YOUR DOCTOR. THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF BOARD CERTIFIED PLASTIC SURGEON IN THIS AREA.
STEP 2: Make sure the physician has hospital privileges
Many people prefer to have surgery performed in the private office of their surgeon (hopefully by now you have chosen a board certified plastic surgeon as regulated by the american board of medical specialties). Having surgery in a private office is attractive, convenient, and allows for cost saving. However, you should check to make sure that your surgeon has hospital privileges to perform plastic surgery in a hospital. This will serve as a double check on your chosen doctor's credentials. Go to the hospital website, and make sure they are listed under plastic surgery, or another listing that makes sense. This will assure you peer review of the physician. While most cosmetic surgeries are extremely safe, you want to make sure that you are in the hands of a physician that can handle any of the unlikely complications, just to be safe.
STEP 3: make sure the facility is ACCREDITED. More and more surgery is being done in un-accredited offices that do not have a peer review system to safety for the patient. Even if no general anesthesia is used, accreditation of the facility is important to assure you maximal safety. Even surgery done under local anesthesia is still surgery.
AVOID THESE PITFALLS
- your surgery is performed by a surgeon. A corporate name should raise your alarms. You need to know the name of your doctor to be able to research him or her.
-any physician may call himself or herself a plastic or cosmetic surgeon. it is up to you to do your research
- any physician may perform any procedure in his or her office without peer scrutiny.
- any physician may claim to be board certified by joining a sound-a-like organization that requires little formal training and is founded by similarly untrained doctors such as that physician. Checking that organization at www.abms.org is your only protection against a sound-a-like organization.
OUR APPROACH: Maximal safety for our patients.
1) Our office is accredited by the American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities, Inc
2) Our surgeons maintains board certification by The American Board of Plastic Surgery.
3) Our surgeon holds hospital privileges to perform cosmetic surgery in Sibley Memorial hospital, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Suburban hospital.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds--5_YIgZk