Surgeon, OR and virtual traffic court

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My personal opinion is he thought it would get him out of the ticket, he stated another surgeon was there to take over. But now that it has national attention and the hospital is now going to take action. So basically a joke is going to make him lose his job and maybe a license.
 
drstranger said:
My personal opinion is he thought it would get him out of the ticket, he stated another surgeon was there to take over. But now that it has national attention and the hospital is now going to take action. So basically a joke is going to make him lose his job and maybe a license.
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This should prompt disciplinary action by the state medical board. It is completely inappropriate to try to appear in traffic court while a patient is unconscious and undergoing surgery. He disrespected the court, the patient and his profession by doing this. The safety of this is questionable and it’s clear that he didn’t take adequate precautions to ensure HIPAA compliance.

Appearing for court while participating in surgery is in no way “basically a joke.” On the legal side, a court appearance is a somber occasion and should be treated seriously. On the medical side, unconscious patients undergoing surgery deserve to be treated with respect. It is in no way respectful to the patient to schedule their surgery at a time you’re supposed to be in court. It is in no way respectful to broadcast their surgery in the background of your appearance in zoom court.

It’s not like it takes some great intellect to realize that it’s a terrible idea to try to appear for court while scrubbed into a surgery. There should absolutely be serious consequences for this.
 
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sloop said:
This should prompt disciplinary action by the state medical board. It is completely inappropriate to try to appear in traffic court while a patient is unconscious and undergoing surgery. He disrespected the court, the patient and his profession by doing this. The safety of this is questionable and it’s clear that he didn’t take adequate precautions to ensure HIPAA compliance.

Appearing for court while participating in surgery is in no way “basically a joke.” On the legal side, a court appearance is a somber occasion and should be treated seriously. On the medical side, unconscious patients undergoing surgery deserve to be treated with respect. It is in no way respectful to the patient to schedule their surgery at a time you’re supposed to be in court. It is in no way respectful to broadcast their surgery in the background of your appearance in zoom court.

It’s not like it takes some great intellect to realize that it’s a terrible idea to try to appear for court while scrubbed into a surgery. There should absolutely be serious consequences for this.
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I agree I did not think it was funny in the slightest, I assumed the surgeon thought it was a joke and why he did it. I was not saying it was a joke. I also think if the pt or family can figure out they were the ones in the video there will be a huge lawsuit, no way he will keep his license.
 
Meh, I see this as a basic case of Surgeon Entitlement Syndrome. Either figured his time was too important or maybe just thought he could impress the judge with how important he was. Not really too hard to imagine him thinking that 5 minutes of Zoom traffic court is not that different from taking a phone call about a patient, especially if there was another doc there.
Disagree with him losing his license. If every surgeon who pushes away from the table for a few minutes for personal business lost their license...there would be a lot fewer jobs for anesthesiologists.

The board will probably just give him a fine and some CME's. He'll give the patient a free nose job or whatever and everybody will go on with life.
Hopefully his lawyer gives him a fat bill for the wasted time.
 
Crabbygas said:
Meh, I see this as a basic case of Surgeon Entitlement Syndrome. Either figured his time was too important or maybe just thought he could impress the judge with how important he was. Not really too hard to imagine him thinking that 5 minutes of Zoom traffic court is not that different from taking a phone call about a patient, especially if there was another doc there.
Disagree with him losing his license. If every surgeon who pushes away from the table for a few minutes for personal business lost their license...there would be a lot fewer jobs for anesthesiologists.

The board will probably just give him a fine and some CME's. He'll give the patient a free nose job or whatever and everybody will go on with life.
Hopefully his lawyer gives him a fat bill for the wasted time.
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Except appearing mid-surgery before a court on zoom with an unconscious patient in the background is different from answering the phone to clear up some details with your accountant or whatever. It’s also very different from talking to another doctor on the phone.

For one, this is a potential HIPAA violation as a result of it being a video call. Additionally, those other examples do not undermine the credibility of the profession and the public‘s perception of physicians like this example. To a very large degree, the job of the medical board is to stop physicians from behaving in ways that undermine public trust in the profession. This is a pretty damn good case for that role.
 
Megatrondidit said:
I am curious as to your thoughts on the surgeon that attended virtual traffic court while a patient is on the OR table.
Is this stupidity at the highest level or did he really thought that it was ok to do this?

You can find this interaction via the link below:
Doctor attends virtual traffic court during surgery. Watch judge's reaction
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The guy landed in far far deeper and more serious legal trouble. Lots of HIPAA violations on top of disrespecting the courts. Pretty sure his license will be revoked and he'll be fired and face serious charges
 
Good for the judge standing his ground and on principle. True, this was probably an elective case and he had his partner working on the case but the "go right ahead" was clearly a flex. As physicians, we have a degree of public trust and usually get the benefit of the doubt because sometimes we need it. Dr. Green didn't need anything in that moment and could have easily rescheduled/scrubbed out. Even as a physician, it's always refreshing to see attempt to pull rank in medicine fall flat in the real world.
 
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drstranger said:
My personal opinion is he thought it would get him out of the ticket, he stated another surgeon was there to take over. But now that it has national attention and the hospital is now going to take action. So basically a joke is going to make him lose his job and maybe a license.
Click to expand...
Stupid yes, possibly dangerous yes, losing his license, not appropriate punishment IMHO.
 
Lawpy said:
The guy landed in far far deeper and more serious legal trouble. Lots of HIPAA violations on top of disrespecting the courts. Pretty sure his license will be revoked and he'll be fired and face serious charges
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"Pretty sure his license will be revoked?" At the end of the day, his license will not be revoked....he will face disciplinary action for sure.
 
Banco said:
The absolute funniest thing is that he has an elective/cosmetic practice, but is pretending like he's doing a type A aortic dissection repair or a Liver transplant.


"Sometimes surgery can't wait your honor"

LMAO
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It’s true. Sometimes it can’t. This ain’t one of those times.
 
My only question is how in the world did this guy think that what he was doing would be ok? He was probably bragging to the anesthesiologist and the scrub/circulating nurses about what he was going to do...
“Hey check this out guys, I’m gonna do virtual traffic Court while I do this patient’s rhinoplasty!”
 
Tenk said:
I haven’t listened to a bigger tool since I listened to Tool.
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Urban Dictionary: Tool

Tool: Anyone who tries to act cooler than they actually are. Most tools are usually douchebags with negative self-esteem. [Synonyms: dingus], poser, [faker],...
www.urbandictionary.com www.urbandictionary.com

Spot on!
 
RJ McReady said:
My only question is how in the world did this guy think that what he was doing would be ok? He was probably bragging to the anesthesiologist and the scrub/circulating nurses about what he was going to do...
“Hey check this out guys, I’m gonna do virtual traffic Court while I do this patient’s rhinoplasty!”
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He was trying to create his septal window at the same time lol
 
Wordead said:
Raise your hand if you were surprised it was a plastic surgeon
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After attorney “ I am not a cat “
This doctor “ I am a surgeon “
Welcome to the age of zoom and social media bloopers..

While music is common in OR.. three years ago, a Georgia plastic surgeon videos dancing in OR while operating caused her license to be suspended with multiple lawsuits!

If he scheduled the case after his court hearing and his docket ran late, he could easily rescheduled or stepped out for the 5-10 mins appearance which shows poor judgment and arrogance..!
If there was no disclosure of patient informations or pictures, I doubt he will be sited for HIPPA violation..
Sure he will be investigated by the hospital and California board and receive at minimum a public reprimand on top of any other allegations by patients current and past for any deviation in outcomes.
 
Maimonides1 said:
After attorney “ I am not a cat “
This doctor “ I am a surgeon “
Welcome to the age of zoom and social media bloopers..

While music is common in OR.. three years ago, a Georgia plastic surgeon videos dancing in OR while operating caused her license to be suspended with multiple lawsuits!

If he scheduled the case after his court hearing and his docket ran late, he could easily rescheduled or stepped out for the 5-10 mins appearance which shows poor judgment and arrogance..!
If there was no disclosure of patient informations or pictures, I doubt he will be sited for HIPPA violation..
Sure he will be investigated by the hospital and California board and receive at minimum a public reprimand on top of any other allegations by patients current and past for any deviation in outcomes.
Click to expand...

That georgia doctor was a dermatologist who called herself a plastic surgeon, but was actually misrepresenting her credentials, along with the idiot dance thing.
 
drstranger said:
I agree I did not think it was funny in the slightest, I assumed the surgeon thought it was a joke and why he did it. I was not saying it was a joke. I also think if the pt or family can figure out they were the ones in the video there will be a huge lawsuit, no way he will keep his license.
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The patient is aware; she supports Dr. Green, and is happy with her surgery results. She also signed a release to have her surgery recorded etc.
Dr. Green Fights Back
 
You know, after watching the full video, I can see both sides of it. When I first saw a 10 second clip of it, I definitely thought it was a flex to try to impress the judge. Was it dumb? Of course. Was it a purposeful flex? Certainly could have been. But there are a ton of old surgeons who I could see making the faux pas of trying to do a few minutes of traffic court from the sidelines in the OR and then going back to assisting the other surgeon instead of scrubbing all the way out and back in. This guy may have just been clueless to the way it would come off and think "I'll just take 5 minutes and then jump back in to help [other doc]" like you would step to the side in full scrub and have the nurse hold the phone to your head for a quick consult question or something. I really don't think patient safety was in peril, and people saying he should lose his license for this.... just seems like an overreaction. My $0.02, anyway.
 
Momoffuturemedstudent said:
The patient is aware; she supports Dr. Green, and is happy with her surgery results. She also signed a release to have her surgery recorded etc.
Dr. Green Fights Back
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He makes good points. I don't buy the whole "inexperience with technology" blanket excuse though. He should have stepped out of the OR and he knows that. That said, no breaches of HIPPA occurred, the patient being operated on was made aware and is supportive of the surgeon, and ultimately Dr. Green seems to have suffered more than enough public humiliation from this debacle. Hopefully he doesn't have his license revoked and gets off with a fine/warning.

I've noticed with traffic tickets, humility doesn't necessarily get you off the hook but it makes a difference.
 
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The people in here going on about standards and the horrific injustice he need to relax and stop taking yourselves so seriously. The patient wasn’t even in frame - there wasn’t any HIPAA violation considering no one could identify the patient from that video/time alone, aside from perhaps patient’s contacts that knew they were getting surgery with that doc at that time. I agree that this was likely some arrogant, clueless old doc who thought he could simultaneously show how important he was/how his time was precious while also avoiding the scrub out/in for 5 min in Zoom court. People do all kinds of classless things in meetings now that we’re in virtual land and this one is just taking more heat cause people wanna act like he spat on graves just cause a patient was somehow out of sight in the background. Further, docs are doing stuff uncanny in the OR all the time patients have no idea of. This is not making excuses for those behaviors, but I really don’t see this being any different than taking phone calls or cracking jokes/being distracted in the OR like usual; this guy just had no self awareness and now has a National PR issue on his hands. Losing his license over it, lol. First person in here who hasn’t ever done something shameful or unethical go ahead and file that motion. Cancel culture still alive and well.
 
I agree
I doubt he would be sanctioned. At worst maybe he’ll get a public reprimand from the CA medical board.
To me it’s a case of poor judgment and hopefully he has learned from it and certainly has suffered a great degree of personal and professional embarrassment.
 
Eye-eye said:
You know, after watching the full video, I can see both sides of it. When I first saw a 10 second clip of it, I definitely thought it was a flex to try to impress the judge. Was it dumb? Of course. Was it a purposeful flex? Certainly could have been. But there are a ton of old surgeons who I could see making the faux pas of trying to do a few minutes of traffic court from the sidelines in the OR and then going back to assisting the other surgeon instead of scrubbing all the way out and back in. This guy may have just been clueless to the way it would come off and think "I'll just take 5 minutes and then jump back in to help [other doc]" like you would step to the side in full scrub and have the nurse hold the phone to your head for a quick consult question or something. I really don't think patient safety was in peril, and people saying he should lose his license for this.... just seems like an overreaction. My $0.02, anyway.
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I guess I can see that. He chose to appear in court though instead of paying $270 for the traffic ticket and not having two license plates on his car (not sure how you contest that). I think it was more likely that he was pissed about paying the fine and wanted to flex on them, rather than innocently thinking it wouldn’t be a problem to do traffic court from the OR.
 
kuzy said:
I guess I can see that. He chose to appear in court though instead of paying $270 for the traffic ticket and not having two license plates on his car (not sure how you contest that). I think it was more likely that he was pissed about paying the fine and wanted to flex on them, rather than innocently thinking it wouldn’t be a problem to do traffic court from the OR.
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I chose to do traffic court for a speeding ticket recently (47 mph in a 25mph zone at night with limited visibility). I appeared not to dispute the offense I had committed, but to request an alternate punitive measure. Ultimately the magistrate waived the points (avoiding a hike in my insurance rate) since I had a clean driving record and allowed me to split up the ticket fee into small payments. I think it pays to show up in traffic court regardless, tell them your side of the story without disputing the charge, and offer an alternative solution. Also, my case was over the phone and not broadcasted on YouTube.
 
BacktotheBasics said:
I chose to do traffic court for a speeding ticket recently (47 mph in a 25mph zone at night with limited visibility). I appeared not to dispute the offense I had committed, but to request an alternate punitive measure. Ultimately the magistrate waived the points (avoiding a hike in my insurance rate) since I had a clean driving record and allowed me to split up the ticket fee into small payments. I think it pays to show up in traffic court regardless, tell them your side of the story without disputing the charge, and offer an alternative solution. Also, my case was over the phone and not broadcasted on YouTube.
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Smart move. People don't realize you can plead Nolo every 5 years or so. I've been doing that for years.
 
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