Care Instead Of Going Procedure To Procedure?
If you thought plastic surgeons was a grueling experience for the patient, imagine the headache on the minds of the surgeons that have to plan it for several patients. Plastic surgery procedures require extensive planning, organization, and efficiency to achieve profitability and customer satisfaction. It’s an arduous task, but necessary, and far better than using a procedure-to-procedure approach to long-term patient care. In this article, we’ll discuss the considerations and measures plastic surgeons need to take to ensure the patient receives quality care.
Why Must Plastic surgeons Plan For Long-Term Care?
Plastic surgery involves the restoration, reconstruction, or alteration of human skin and tissues. There are two kinds of plastic surgery, cosmetic surgery like Lip Augmentation, Breast Augmentation, and Rhinoplasty, and reconstructive surgery like craniofacial surgery, microsurgery and burn treatment. The sum duration of these treatments up to and including all the aftercare procedures can stretch from weeks to years. It depends on a range of factors like the number of surgeries, the extent of reconstruction or alteration required by the patient, financial considerations, and the patient’s medical history. Surgeons must have the foresight to see what could go wrong in the process of treating a patient from beginning to end and make a plan to ensure the patient experiences quality care. Problems like complications or pain may emerge if certain contingencies aren’t planned for ahead of time.
Key Considerations For Planning Long-Term Patient Care
Discussion With The Patient
Discussions with the patient are of the utmost importance before planning a long-term care schedule because your schedule firstly, must match theirs. Another condition that must be met is allowing for the appropriate amount of recovery time before each consequent procedure. Plastic surgeons have the painstaking task of finishing the entire procedure efficiently while allowing for recovery and accommodating the patient’s schedule, discomfort, and desires. To ensure the greatest comfort for patients, surgeons must have an open dialogue discussing all the steps of the procedure, possible pain, discomfort, complications, costs, and their own availability.
Review Medical History
Before sitting down to create a surgery schedule, plastic surgeons must carefully review the patient’s medical records to check for previous or ongoing surgeries performed, genetic diseases, health conditions, allergies, and recovery pace. Going from procedure to procedure without appreciating the sensitivity of a patient’s health can be precarious.
Hiring An Aftercare Nurse
Hiring an aftercare nurse has become a popular option for plastic surgery clinics and independent licensed practitioners. It started when patients began hiring private nurses to help them with difficulties during the recovery period. Aftercare nurses can manage all the aspects of the postop treatment like changing dressings, draining pustules, applying hot or cold packs, and acting as a medium between the surgeon and patient for minor follow-up procedures. Hiring an aftercare nurse can save a lot of time for plastic surgeons and help run things smoothly. Surgeries that require treatment that possible last months would benefit the most from additional qualified staff.
Getting Special Supplies Ahead Of Time
Depending on the type of surgery, special equipment or medical consumables may be required and that can take time to arrive, especially if you’re importing. Inventory and Logistics are more of an administrative task, but plastic surgeons with independent practices need to carry out regular appraisals of inventory and contact supply partners to make sure they have what the patient needs at the right time.
Financial Considerations
Plastic surgery costs a lot of money and the costs are broken up into many parts, payable across time. Surgeons need to know how patients plan to pay for their treatment and create a schedule that meets both the patient’s financial means and the clinic’s policy with regard to payment for services rendered.
