Relativity in Reporting

How long does it take a surgeon to complete a postoperative report?

It seems like a straightforward question and it’s been one of our main focuses as we’ve developed the OpNote, our electronic postoperative reporting product.  In order to ensure adoption by users, we know that we can’t tax the user’s (in this case, a physician’s) time any more than they already spend on reporting.  So we had to determine how much time physicians spend generating their own postoperative reports.  This was mainly done through anecdotal means – speaking with various surgeons and asking them how long it takes for them to complete a report.

And that’s when we learned something interesting.  Surgeons would tell us it would only take 30 seconds to 5 minutes to complete their report, depending on the level of complexity of the procedure.  But is that accurate?  As we gathered information and stories of postoperative reporting – we noticed that the way physicians think about report completion may not be as correct as they think.

Introducing the OpNote Consultants – Dr. Seth Goldberg

While creating our surgical reporting product, the OpNote, we at mTuitive have been working with many highly skilled surgeons.  These surgeons are from a diverse group of specialties and backgrounds and help to shape the future and efficacy of the OpNote.  We’re introducing these consultants to all of you in the coming weeks.

After 27 years as an otolaryngologist/facial plastic surgeon in Rockville, MD, Dr. Seth Goldberg launched a new career as a health care consultant specializing in clinical information technology development, utilization management, continuous quality improvement, and risk management. He conducts accreditation surveys of outpatient medical facilities for the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care. Dr. Goldberg holds board certifications in Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, and Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

He earned his B.S. degree in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University, and his M.D. degree from Tufts University School of Medicine. He recently received his Masters of Medical Management degree from Carnegie Mellon University. Washingtonian Magazine and Washington Consumers Checkbook have included him in their list of Top Doctors.

In conjunction with his solo clinical practice, Dr. Goldberg was Chief of Otolaryngology at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, MD, and Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Rockville, MD. He also served as a member of the Peer Review Committee of the Montgomery County Medical Society and as a peer review consultant with the Delmarva Foundation, Medical Mutual Liability Society of Maryland and the Medical Chirurgical Society of Maryland.

How did you get your interest in medicine?

I’m at the leading edge of the baby boom generation and my role model was – and we can joke about this – it was the TV show “Marcus Welby, MD.” He was a very respected individual and it was clear, back in the sixties, that physicians were highly respected members of and contributors to the well-being of  society.  So I think that’s what originally piqued my interest.

There were other factors, of course – I excelled at science and math.  I had an inquiring, experimental mind – I worked as a lab assistant for one of my biology teachers in addition to taking Advanced Biology as an elective in high school.  I taught tomato plants to say, “feed me, Seth.”

(Laughs)

Once I got into college, I fast tracked into medicine – that seemed to be the thing to get into at the time.  So I did my pre-med and the process for getting into medical school was actually pretty easy.  I had an interview at Tufts that consisted of the interviewer informing me that they had already decided to admit me.

(Laughs) So then you clearly felt like “I nailed it!”

(Laughs) Basically, yeah – I felt like I had nailed it, right.  Also, at the time, there was this other little thing called the Vietnam War.  I had a high lottery number, or I guess it was actually a low lottery number.  So there was only one other choice and that was be cannon fodder.

Introducing the OpNote Consultants: Dr. H. Walter Kaess

While creating our surgical reporting product, the OpNote, we at mTuitive have been working with many highly skilled surgeons.  These surgeons are from a diverse group of specialties and backgrounds and help to shape the future and efficacy of the OpNote.  We’re introducing these consultants to all of you in the coming weeks.

Dr. H. Walter Kaess attended medical school in Cologne, Germany, and Vienna, Austria, and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Cologne in 1970. He started his surgical residency at the University of Bonn and continued his training at Rhode Island Hospital, a Brown University Teaching Hospital, where he completed his residency in 1979 as Executive Chief Resident.

In 1979, he moved to Cape Cod and began his almost thirty year career at Cape Cod Hospital.  During that time he was actively involved in Medical Staff Quality Assurance committees, served as Chief of Surgery and two three-year terms on the Board of Trustees. Dr. Kaess practiced the wide range of Vascular and General Surgery, with a special interest in Breast Surgery.

How did you become interested in medicine?

You start out with a very difficult question!  But when I think about it, I think it had something to do with the fact that medicine was always familiar to me growing up because my mother was sick.  My mother spent a great deal of time in hospitals and eventually passed away.  When she got sick, I was less than 10 years old.  And when you are at that formative age, and you walk into hospitals and the smell of disinfectant becomes an everyday occurrence to you, then I think that sort of breeds a certain familiarity with medicine.

My high school advisors told me that I was good in natural sciences and that I should become a physicist – which I tried…for one semester.  But I found that much too dry.

I had always fought against going into medicine, because my father’s second wife was a medical general practitioner and everybody had expected me to go into medicine.  When you’re in that rebellious stage, you say “No Way!”  Nevertheless, at some point my interest in natural sciences and my familiarity with medicine became strong enough that I decided I wanted to go into that field.

And how did you decide to become a surgeon?

I did a mixed internship – 6 months of medicine, 6 months of surgery.  The first six months of medicine…I was bored to tears.  That was the worst rotation I’ve ever had in my life.  All people did was talk – they never did anything with the patient.  I’m not a desk person – I’m a doer!  So, all of a sudden, I went into surgery and said, “I like that!” You know, interacting with the patient, doing something.  So, I became a surgeon.

Introducing the OpNote Consultants: Dr. Roger N. Chabra

While creating our surgical reporting product, the OpNote, we at mTuitive have been working with many highly skilled surgeons.  These surgeons are from a diverse group of specialties and backgrounds and help to shape the future and efficacy of the OpNote.  We’re introducing these consultants to all of you in the coming weeks.

Dr. Roger Nathan Chabra graduated in 1962 from Christian Medical College of Punjab University in India.  For his post-graduate surgical training, he went to the United Kingdom and became Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh in 1969.

In 1970, he emigrated to the United States and went through a complete surgical residency program at Boston University Medical Center.  He joined Cape Cod Hospital as Attending General Surgeon in 1974 where he worked until his retirement in 2000.

During his time at Cape Cod Hospital he was on the faculty of Boston University Medical School as Clinical Instructor in Surgery and was involved in training surgical residents and medical students rotating through the hospital, which is an affiliate of the Department of Surgery at Boston University Hospital.

How did you get interested in medicine?

Where I grew up, in India, there’s a lot of influence of the parents.   In a subtle way, they decide what their children are going to be.  So there was this slow…”brainwashing” may be too strong a term.

(Laughs)

But that was going on all the time.  It was almost difficult to escape that concept.  In a country like India, you do not want to disappoint your parents, or make them unhappy because you chose something different than what they wanted.

So the die was cast, as far as I was concerned.

Why did you decide to become a surgeon?

I had surgery at a very young age.  I was in this magnificent hospital and I saw the aura around the surgeon and the nurses.   The reverence and respect they received.

“My god,” I said, “I want to be like them one of these days.”

So that drove me into surgery.  My original field was going to be chest surgery, because I had thoracic surgery done on myself.  That didn’t pan out, so instead I became a general surgeon.