Unique and interesting schedule ideas

[Dr mann212]

So I was talking with some friends the other day and The topic of acute care surgery lifestyle came up. With that, some questions popped up in my head so I figured I'd make a post about it.

I've seen some of the schedules that acute care surgeons have, but I've also been told there are numerous models that they can go by. I was also wondering if this same model could apply to other surgical specialties as well. So with that in mind, my questions:

1. What are some common and unique example work schedules that acute care/trauma surgeons go by?

2. Same as number 1 but with other surgical specialties? Like neuro, ortho, CT,etc.

3. Could the acute care model be applied to other surgical specialties as well? Like a neurosurgeon doing a week on neuro icu for a week, then a week for trauma/emergency neuro stuff, then electives? Would it work like that at all with the others; Ortho, vascular, ct?

Thanks for your time.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[doc05]

No. This sort of schedule doesn't really work for other specialties, as elective cases and office hours are usually important.

 

[Dr mann212]

No. This sort of schedule doesn't really work for other specialties, as elective cases and office hours are usually important.

Thanks for your reply. Do you think you could expand on this a little? Im not sure i understand what you mean. Are general surgery electives and office hours not as important as other specialties?

 

[DoctwoB]

The issue is that for most other surgical specialties the volume of non-elective cases is too low to have a designated person whose only job is to deal with urgent/emergent surgical cases. They would spend most of their day just sitting around. This isn't universal. My institution has a full time orthopedic trauma doc who only does non-elective cases for the week, but that is only feasible in a high volume referral center. Even then, youll never have enough acute cases to justify an acute care urologist, or acute care otolaryngologist, and so on.

 

[Dr mann212]

The issue is that for most other surgical specialties the volume of non-elective cases is too low to have a designated person whose only job is to deal with urgent/emergent surgical cases. They would spend most of their day just sitting around. This isn't universal. My institution has a full time orthopedic trauma doc who only does non-elective cases for the week, but that is only feasible in a high volume referral center. Even then, youll never have enough acute cases to justify an acute care urologist, or acute care otolaryngologist, and so on.

So the only specialty it can only work with is high volume general surgery? I thought neurosurgery at a level 1 or some other academic facility would have a huge volume. Or vasc/ct. Anyway thanks for the input!

 

[ACSurgeon]

So the only specialty it can only work with is high volume general surgery? I thought neurosurgery at a level 1 or some other academic facility would have a huge volume. Or vasc/ct. Anyway thanks for the input!

Some hospitals/services have the "surgeon of the week" who takes all consults and weekend/night time call. So, instead of being on call 1-2 nights per week, you'd cover one week at a time and then not take call for a few weeks. I don't see why this model can't be implemented in a group of 3+ physicians of any kind. For specialties like ENT, the "acute care" otolaryngolosit will likely still have some type of elective cases/clinic during their call week. It would be much harder to have a pure acute care ENT practice...

 

[DoctwoB]

list. ati

Some hospitals/services have the "surgeon of the week" who takes all consults and weekend/night time call. So, instead of being on call 1-2 nights per week, you'd cover one week at a time and then not take call for a few weeks. I don't see why this model can't be implemented in a group of 3+ physicians of any kind. For specialties like ENT, the "acute care" otolaryngolosit will likely still have some type of elective cases/clinic during their call week. It would be much harder to have a pure acute care ENT practice...

Of course you can schedule your call schedule differently. Our department also has an attending on call for emergent cases and staffing consults for a week at a time, which they do in addition to their usual scheduled cases/clinic. My understanding was that the OP was asking about the practicality of having schedules with a full time on-call attending or surgical hospitalist protecting everyone's elective case time while minimizing the pain of being on call by behaving that be your only job for said week.