re: #269 dat_said

One of the most frustrating times in my implantable medical device career was when the company sent me out into the field to get some insight into device infection rates.

Followed one doctor on rounds as he’s making wound checks and as he’s getting ready to do one I have to pipe up and say “Doctor, you should scrub your hands first”. He got grumpy and told me he had done that after the last patient. I reminded him that he had shaken a couple hands between rooms, held a clip board, and handled at least one doorknob. I think he was pissed at me but he did wash his hands.

Interviewing a different doctor and assistant and I start off asking if he knew what their infection rate was. His reply was they didn’t have a problem (not what I asked). So, I changed tactics and asked how many implants does his group do a year - about one a week. Did they have any infections last year - we had two, we flushed one with antibiotics and that cleared and one we had to remove the device and leads, oh, we had another but that cleared on it’s own so you can see we took care of everything and no device infection problems here. In my head I’m thinking 4% infection rate, oh wait now you’re telling me it’s 6% - yeah, small numbers but that’s way over the average of 1.5% so maybe you should review your practices.

And then a third doctor doing EP tests eating a bagel and a cupcake while standing over the patient….

Yeah, definitely frustrating

Wife was an RN. They had nicknames for doctors, based on their post-op rates.