Complaint Review: Board of Trustees Mayo Clinic - Rochester Minnesota

Tom Brokaw is going to get an Honorary MD from Mayo Clinic in 2014, yet the Board of Trustees is allowing certain women patients to have surgeries done without consent for student/resident practice - when the patients specifically refused the surgery, refused the anesthesia, and refused student/residents and the student/residents had never seen the patient(s).  There was not to be a resident, intern or student in the room, or with gloves on and instruments in their hands - this can be posted on the rooms - examining and otherwise.  People do come for consults to Mayo Clinic for the ancillary staff.   

Tom Brokaw has been told about this - and the Patient Services people are covering this up based on what is in their computers - that these cases are 'closed.'  Certain of the patients have requested that Mayo Clinic undo the procedure, because no one else knows how to do this or why the procedure was done without patient consent - that's the main problem for the other hospitals & surgeons - the admission of the lack of consent without an emergency situation.  Undoing a procedure that was malpractice in the first place is a problem - especially when the negligence, or overstepping, was done by Mayo Clinic.  And Tom Brokaw doesn't think these problems happen at Mayo Clinic.

The Mayo Clinic has admitted that this certain procedure was done without patient consent in some instances, for show, and without workup or discussion of options - someone needed to fill an OR slot for money (Dr. Sarr).  Dr. Sarr would go on speaking engagements, come back, and herd patients into the OR to fill his cancelled schedules - without their labs, scans, or consults being done - and he was allowed to do this.  Staff knew about it and went along, even though there was no consent on the chart signed by the patient for this procedure.  Dr. Sarr would say he had to operate tomorrow because he was on a plane out by the end of the week - the traveling Mayo Surgeons that don't do much but make a mess.   

Jill Beed Smith, Dr. Michael Sarr know the names of the patients involved, and that they have requested that the procedures be undone.  There is no excuse that if a patient requests, and will pay for a surgery to be done by the attending, that the staff is involved at all - the students, residents walk in when they want to and don't know the patients, haven't seen/examined the patients that are involved in this situation or others, and have restricted hours when they come and go - not patient times.  The residents are on 'residency clock time.'  It was requested that medical students not be in the room - for good reasons.  Tom Brokaw wouldn't want them broadcasting about his anatomy particulars, the condition of his prostate, or his anything on Facebook, and that's what medical students do.  So he needs to do something about this.  Media is what medical students, interns, residents, and fellows do - they post naked pictures of their babies, spouses, vacations, and anything else that they do.  We are an over- Facebooked nation. 

It was tried to notify the Medical Board of MN, but they claim that they can't regulate a Clinic - that the Board of Trustees has to oversee that patient care is safe, consented to, and that teaching goes on with the consent of the patient. The Board of Trustees has to guarantee that no one is in any patient room when requested to leave, or not involved in a procedure because of patient confidentiality.  The OR, and Mayo Clinic staff, have to allow that when a patient refuses the sea of interns, residents & fellows following the attending - that this is adhered to.   

Students, residents, and fellows should not be in the room if requested to leave or not to be involved - you can't just then bring in the black medical student either, claiming that it's his 'right' when the white, gay, and whatever students have also been asked not to be involved either - it's a question of the patient's rights.  This is not something of prejudice, it's just that care with many unknowns involved gets complicated, and bad things happen. There are many reasons why trainees are not appropriate for a certain patient's care, and why they would not be appropriate for Tom Brokaw's care.  One of them is the texting, twittering, and facebook posting of what staff, interns, residents & fellows do without patient consent - that you find out who really did the surgery on Facebook.