Quote:
Originally Posted by LTHFAdvocate
Sorry Jillio, but I don't agree with you. Protocols change over time. There was a time (not really that long ago) where meningitis vaccinations didn't even exist, then there were but they weren't required, then there was one vaccine, now I think there are two. Protocols change over time, and individual physicians, as a whole, are reluctant to change their clinic protocols without recommendations from higher authorities, like the FDA, the AAO-HNS, or the manufacturers. What happens if it turns out 20 years from now that this new meningitis vaccination causes cancer or infertility? Then everyone would be screaming at the doctors for having a blanket requirements that everyone get these shots when the risk of meningitis was so low? Extreme example, I know, but you get my point.
Physicians cannot assume a lifetime of responsibility for a patient. They are responsible for the services they provide and ongoing care as long as the patient remains part of that practice. If the device is raising the risk of meningitis, then it is the device manufacturers' responsibility to notify patients of the changing nationwide recommendations. They have the money, and they have more up to date contact information for the patients. That is how patients implanted 10 years ago when meningitis vaccinations either didn't exist or weren't done should be contacted about getting their shot records examined and updated.
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Yes, protocols do change over time, and when it is discovered that there is a procedure that caqn reduce the risk, then it becomes standard protocol. So why is it not protocol to simply chaeck a patient's medical record to see if there is documentation of the completed vaccine. Physicans check for medication allergies and complicating health issues prior to surgery. Why not the vaccine? It isn't that difficult, and it requires minimal effort. The medical record is available. All that has to be done is to look in the chart for documentation. No documentation, no surgery until documentatio0n is there. Can't get much simpler than that.
And, no physicians, unless practicing in the field of family medicine, generally are not responsible for the life time of any given patient. However, a surgeon is responsible for that patient pre-surgically, during surgery, and post-surgically. Pre-surgical responsibility would imply that the surgeon determine whether the vaccine had been completed prior to putting the patient under the knife. If a dentist fails to insure that an orthopedic implant patient has been premedicated with antibiotics prior to dental procedures, and that patient contracts bacterial endocarditis as a result, the dentist is held responsible, because it is his area of expertise to insure that the patient is not put under undue risk. Likewise,the implant surgeon who fails to insure that a patient has been vaccinated, and that patient later contracts bacterial memingitis as a result, the surgeon is resposnible under the same premise of expertise.