How “Not” to Pick an Ortho. Doc.
“Disclaimer: This post is based on my personal experiences. For any health or medical advice, please consult a professional.”
My patients who made bad decisions. 2021
At the end of my career, I worked for 7 years as a home health PT. The company I worked for only saw post-op total knee and total hip replacement patients. If you have any surgery, you should do your research and try to find the best. However, when someone is replacing an entire joint, you absolutely want the best. So many things can go wrong, such as infection or getting the wrong joint size, among other things. I can name two total joint replacement specialists in Atlanta who are highly regarded, and I agree: Dr. Mark Hanna and Dr. Ken Kress. If someone needs a joint replacement revision, I have other names. If you don’t want to end up needing a revision, you’ll do well with one of these two guys.
This week I started working w/ a pt who is a surgeon at a local hospital. Right now, he is planning on going back to work for a night shift in about 2 wks. I asked him what that would involve, and he said, “mostly sitting or a little standing/walking down to the ER to do an emergency appendectomy” (ok, sure). Even if he is doing well, I don’t think he’ll be able to do that in 2 wks. Also, I don’t think his orthopedic surgeon gets all that great of results. The patient questioned me about that. The wife (retired nurse) says she knows Dr. Hanna is good… why didn’t he go with Dr. Hanna? He mentioned on his first day that he is friends with the orthopedic surgeon; that’s not a great reason to choose a particular doctor, especially for a knee replacement.
I have had this situation a couple of times before. One pt went to a surgeon out of N. Fulton Hospital that I would never recommend. He can have good outcomes, but he has plenty of bad outcomes; it wouldn’t be worth the risk. This pt said he had heard Dr. Hanna and Dr. Kress were the best. He had plenty of friends that had been to them. BUT…this guy went to the doctor out of N. Fulton because HE WENT TO HIGH SCHOOL WITH HIM! OK>>>>>
Another patient also didn’t go with Kress or Hanna because she knew they were the best… so she went with another doctor because she felt she wouldn’t get personal attention from the best doctors. In both cases, these 2 TKR’s (total knee replacements) had a terrible outcome, at least when I was working with them. Both patients asked me if they should have used a different doctor. Of course, you as a therapist cannot tell them the truth, but geez, sometimes people are a little dumb. If a doctor is the best, go to the best.
ADDENDUM: my surgeon is 10 days post-op, and he scheduled himself for a shift. We’ll see how he does. I do not recommend it, but you can never tell these people anything. He said he’ll mostly be sitting around or may have to walk down to the ER. If he had to do surgery, it might be something like an emergency appendectomy. His shift is from 4-11:00 at night. We’ll see how he feels tomorrow. Crazy.
11/7/2024. I don’t remember how any of these patients turned out, but I wouldn’t be surprised to hear they never did well after their joint replacement.