For those of you who are not surgeons, the behind the scenes of what goes on around and during the patient’s surgery makes a difference. While large tertiary hospitals are impressive beasts of coordination and services they do not focus on the outpatient experience for the patient because their core business and role, is the care of acute illness and complex highly specialized procedures such as “robotic surgery”, Heart surgery and neurological interventions. As medicine becomes more specialized and relies heavier on complex computer aided equipment, the larger hospitals are forced to stay updated by buying increasingly expensive equipment such as intraoperative CT scanners, MRI, 3D aided surgical guidance, endovascular radiology suits, which cost millions. The basic equipment that is used on a day to day basis is often overlooked. It is not uncommon for a surgery in a major hospital to include a Million+ dollar sophisticated machine and an array of 1980s dull surgical scissors.
At smaller surgery centers we focus on the instruments that are used every day. We have sharp new German scissors. We have that surgeon’s favorite little needle holder that he/she needs because they are left handed. Big hospitals struggle with these nuances as they are focused on the larger more complex capabilities. This is just one of the reasons why for minor procedures such as what we focus on at LSSC our surgeons would rather operate at a center focused on their individual needs.