Concurrent Surgeries at MGH Spur Federal Investigations

Lubin & Meyer lawsuits are at the center of widening probe into double-booking surgeries

Recent investigative reporting by the award-winning Boston Globe Spotlight Team on "Concurrent Surgeries" at Mass General Hospital and lawsuits filed by Lubin & Meyer on behalf of patients there, continue to have a ripple effect — and have resulted in federal inquiries into the practice of double-booking surgeries without a patient's knowledge.

See these articles as federal scrunity of the practice unfolds.

• US Senator Orin Hatch Launches Inquiry into Simultaneous Surgeries at Hospitals Including Mass. General
  
• US Attorney Carmen Ortiz Launches Federal Investigation into Concurrent Surgeries at MGH
  Seeks 10 Years of Records
• Massachusetts To Require Surgeons To Document Operating Room Comings and Goings

See our prior post on this topic:
Concurrent Surgeries in the Spotlight: Is it Safe To Run Two Operations at Once?

View our main website at LubinandMeyer.com - Lubin & Meyer PC - New England's Leader in Medical Malpractice and Personal Injury Law

Attorneys licensed and practicing in MA, NH and RI

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.

View our main website at LubinandMeyer.com
Lubin & Meyer PC - New England's Leader in Medical Malpractice Law
Attorneys practicing in MA, NH and RI