Add ons anyone

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narcusprince

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This question is geared toward residents/attendings what is the percentage of days where a case is added to your room? I am new to the politics of the OR. At my institution it seems like every day I am at work I have an added on case.
 
Addons happen every day, which is why the OR crew gets so lazy and unmotivated if it looks like their current case will end around 3:00 or 3:30. They have no shame. They're quite open about deliberately being slow to avoid the addon. Half the time they screw themselves when they get it anyway and they're starting at 4:00 instead of 3:30, the other half the time they screw their colleagues on the evening shift. It's as if they're having some kind of sick dysfunctional contest of laziness with the other OR crews.

Around here, the cases seem to be distributed amongst residents/SRNAs, with most late day addons going to the call team. If you get done early, it's common to get one. It's rare to stay late because of them however.

I'd guess that you, as a CA-0 at a program that pays CA-1/2/3s extra to stay late, are ripe for daily addon abuse because you cost the bean counters nothing.

As for the politics of the OR, the only thing we need to know as residents is that the correct answer is to always cheerfully do whatever case they give us, whenever they give it to us. 🙂
 
Getting slammed with add-ons may suck, but the work has to get done, and this reveals the difference between being an attending and being a resident. When you get add-ons as a resident, you just get more work to do. When you get add-ons as an attending, you actually get financially rewarded for your extra work (if your practice model rewards such).
 
I would say I get add ons about 80% of the time. Sometimes they are great - like in the heart room. Often, they are not so great - like in the ortho room (the 4th I&D vac dressing change of the day).

I'm very glad to hear the the OR laziness isn't just at my institution.
 
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