|
|
On 24 Sep 2005 14:04:03 -0500, "Howard McCollister" wrote:
>This patient will still need to be admitted, his care supervised by
>an attending physician. It won't be free, or even cheaper. Certainly
>not in the sense that you can get a cheap haircut at a barber college.
Where the hell have you been for the past dozen years and more?
An uncomplicated inguinal herniorrhaphy is performed on an out-
patient basis rather more often than not nowadays. The cutters
practically slap the patient awake in the recovery room and make
him jog down the corridor to get dressed.
You're right that having the surgery performed while on a teaching
service won't be free, but what makes you think that it will be less
expensive if it's performed by a surgeon in private practice in the
same city or surroundings?
One measure I might recommend is considering outpatient inguinal
herniorrhaphy at a small community hospital fifty or a hundred miles
from big-city "centers of excellence" (and foci of high costs). Sur-
geons on staff at such smaller hospitals are certainly well-practiced
in the performance of such routine surgical procedures, and can
undertake them with statistical outcomes not significantly different
from results gained in metropolitan facilities. One might find some
surprising price advantages.
And about twelve dollars invested in an electric hair clipper kit at
Wal-Mart is even cheaper (and much more convenient) than going
to the local barber college. I gave up wearing my hair more than
about one-quarter of an inch long when I was faced with the choice
between wearing a surgical cap and one of those bloody ridiculous
shower cap monstrosities, and now my granddaughters wrangle over
whose turn it is to give Poppi his haircut every couple of weeks.
--------------------
"You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders!
The most famous is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia,'
but only slightly less well-known is this: 'Never go in against
a Sicilian when death is on the line!'"
-- Vizzini (character)
*The Princess Bride* (William Goldman, 1973)
|
|