Surgeon versus Tech versus Patient

[topccat29]

The following was posted on another forum by hopeful2010. I thought it would be a good topic to post here and get some feedback.



I was thinking about this for some time and think its appropriate to make a post...

What is the relative importance of surgeon skills, technician skills, and the actual patient post-op care?

It seems that most clinics depend HEAVILY on technicians to place the actual grafts into the slits. How important is the technicians skills in placement of the grafts? Technicians are also the ones that take the strip once the surgeon removes it and cut the grafts into follicular units...they have to determine how much tissue to leave in..etc.

It seems that the surgeons themselves are only involved with cutting the strip out and making the incisions. So is involvement as important as the technicians involvement?

Also, post-op care (especially during the 1st week after surgery) seems very important. A patient who doesn't take proper care of the grafts can end up losing the grafts or having other problems that can lead to poor yield.

How important are these factors and should we be focusing more on TECHNICIAN skills and PATIENT post-op care than we do?

Some people say they got better yield on the right than left (for example)...could this be because they had two technicians working on their scalp during surgery and the one on the left had less experience...? Or are these factors relating to the patient's post op care? Or is this stuff just random?

 

[topccat29]

This is just my own opinion and not everyone will agree. When you go to a great clinic everyone that is part of the team enjoys being there and excels at what they do. To expect one person to do everything and anything is asking for too much and is a poor way to run a business. It ends up being detrimental to the patient.

We are all different and sometimes we just fit in better doing certain types of work. I would rather have a doctor that concentrates exclusively on being able to in my case extract fue's with the greatest of ease, using very small punches without damaging the grafts because that is where his skill happens to be. Being able to do something in which very few others have the ability. It's also important that the doctor is a natural born artist. And I wouldn't expect Leonardo da Vinici to be lugging cans of paint up the hillside.

Placing grafts is long tedious work it might be better assumed by those who enjoy doing long tedious work. Some are just better equipped for this type of work and that is the person I would want doing it and it could very well not be the doctor. As long as that person is the best at what they do and enjoys being there.

This goes for every other area of the overall experience. I want to have someone that is very personable and knowledgeable in the area of customer service and patient care. The fact is not everyone is suited for this type of work either. How many times have I interacted with someone in customer service who could not muster up a smile and a hello? The most basic skill in customer service.

It has been my experience that a jack of all trades excels at none of them. I have seen enough over the years that a doctor that does it all is sometimes is a very bad choice. Sometimes they have to resort to faster ways of doing things out of necessity, that's bad for the patient. I for one would prefer to pass on the drill or the Extractagraft 2000. But what really stands out with a doctor that tries to do it all is the way that he treats his patients. It always seems to be not very good, but then again this is my own opinion. Maybe I have been through too much over the last 25 years and my standards are just that much higher.

As far as post op care is concerned, the patient has an obligation to follow directions and do all that can be done to promote healing of his own body. This is something I feel very strongly about. One simply cannot do the opposite and then look for others to blame which does happen. I can't tell you how many people I know that end up getting cancer, seek out conventional treatment, and go back to the exact lifestyle that gave them the cancer to begin with. They take absolutely no personal responsibility for their own care and well being. Who is to blame in such a scenario?


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I recently won the pro bono offer to have repair work with BHR. I will be writing about it soon on my blog.
http://hairtransplantrepair.blogspot.com/

 

[Bigmac]

Good topic, tech skill and experience are of the upmost importance. Also the doctor should monitor and check the work of the techs constantly to ensure everything is being done correctly.

 

[janna]

Every aspect of a ht surgery is critical. The doctor's experience and credentials are paramount because it all starts at the top. The skills of the surgical assistants and what's expected of them comes from the doctor, or at least it should. What doctors allow their assistants to perform should be because they are thoroughly trained and are trusted with each specialized task but the doctor takes ultimate responsibility for their work. The techs should become their right hand to assist. That's why we are called ASSISTANTS. Part of the procedure requires technical skills and can be learned, however, the medical, artistic, and the technical responsibilies rests solely with the physician. The surgical assistants, no matter how experienced, cannot replace the knowledge of a doctor unless they've gone through medical school themselves. Our doctors communicate all the time with other top doctors in this industry - to sharing information with each other because something new comes up quite frequently.

I've attended many ht surgical workshops over the years and too often doctors who are new to HT think the procedure itself is easy. To be honest, it can be easy if the dissected grafts are big and the incisions are big and spread apart. The planting doesn't take much of a skill if grafts and incisions are big but we know the type of results this will produce. It's too bad newbies don't know how important it is to make sure that the clinic has a proven track record. When patients research, they should research if the doctor produces consistent refined results. If this is the case, then the work of technicians and post op care are good too. Due to labor intensiveness of the procedure, it's nearly impossible to perform all aspects of surgery by just the physician.

 

[topccat29]

"When patients research, they should research if the doctor produces consistent refined results."

Janna I could not agree with this more. Most fail to realize slick marketing videos, being a member of various associations, receiving awards, published articles in peer reviewed journals, authoring books, being selected for an elite list and so much more of what I see is mostly used as a tool of marketing. This is too bad. Because everything that is listed here should be a proud accomplishment, but all too often it is used to deceive the consumer and project an image.

I know this to be true is several other fields that I am somewhat familiar with. The person has all types of accreditations. But I shake my head because I can see just how incompetent they truly happen to be.

It does all come down to hundreds and hundreds of results.

 

[topccat29]

In fact most patients buy the image because it €™s easier then taking the time to meet and speak to patients and people in the industry . They don't want to spend the time that it takes.

I do find it very interesting how doctors that I know of who have damaged patients in the past are somehow able to reinvent themselves. I know this to be true because I have gotten to know many of these damaged patients over the years. But there is always a new crop of prospective patients ready to be harvested by those same doctors. Unfortunately these same patients are unaware of the poor yield of seasons past and buy into the hype.

I have watched some of these same doctors get into petty internet squabbles with patients and other doctors long ago showing just how unprofessional they are. Now all of a sudden they are supposed to be respected surgeons doing good for the community, please. I have been around long enough to know better.

The image change and conditioning is very slow and most don €™t even notice it. For example doctors are now often referred to as health care providers, really? The reality is that most doctors know next to nothing about promoting health but that is not the image the average person has been conditioned to believe. No different in the world of hair transplantation. Too many buy the image.

I apologize for my rant but this seeing this stuff makes me crazy.

 

[Prohairclinic]

Unlike other cosmetic treatments like breast enlargement/nose correction .... hair restoration involves hundreds or thousands individual follicles that need proper handling.
Therefore it is quite easy to understand as to why staff is used to accomplish many or most of the tasks involved.

Just to give an example:

An FUE hair transplantation of 1500 grafts :

1500 extractions
1500 counting/sorting/controlling the grafts
1500 sites need to be created
1500 grafts need to be re-implanted

Total numer of individual manual actions : 6000

It takes a team of trained staff to accomplish, there is no other way.