Surgeons should tell patients of double-booked surgeries, new guidelines say - The Boston Globe

The Boston Globe
 April 13, 2016
 
The world’s largest surgeons’ organization has issued its first-ever guidelines for surgeons managing simultaneous operations, saying the controversial practice is broadly permissible, within limits, but that “the patient needs to be informed” whenever a doctor runs more than one operating room at a time.
Such notice to patients is not now routine or required at many hospitals. The new standards from the American College of Surgeons, issued Wednesday, also aim to bar surgeons from handling cases in which the “critical or key” parts of surgeries overlap.
“A primary attending surgeon’s involvement in concurrent or simultaneous surgeries on two different patients in two different rooms is not appropriate,” the guidelines state.....