Plastic Surgery Articles

Respect

Respect is what Board-Certification means to me.

It means respect FOR my patients, not FROM my patients.

To me as doctor, Board certification in plastic surgery means that I care and respect my patients enough to seek out the highest levels of education and credentialing to deliver the best care for my patients.

It means, after graduating from an accredited 4-year medical school, training in an institution that meets the Residency Review Committee (RRC) and ACGME (Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education) requirements to be a bona fide and legitimate residency training program.

It means that after that training – ranging from 5-7 years, the graduate will submit themselves to a lengthy written examination. After passing the written examination, the graduate submits himself or herself to an Oral Examination – where a grueling committee pours over the doctor’s cases, looking for any signs of substandard practice, any deviation from the ethical and honest practice of medicine, and any concerns about judgment, skill, and aptitude.

Board-Certification means the doctor cares enough to put the patient’s best interest at heart, ahead of his or her own.

Board-Certification is not a one-off event. To maintain board-certification, the doctor must continue ongoing medical education (CME) to keep abreast of the latest new techniques, devices, and medications as they emerge. The doctor must maintain a license to practice medicine, pass the scrutiny of his/her peers, and maintain credentials and privileges in a hospital. It’s like a periodic check-up on the doctor’s ability and skills.

Board-certification takes time. It takes time away from our practice and from our families. There is studying, reading, form-filling, and exam-taking. While it may not be fun, it is essential to maintaining and promoting the best of plastic surgery for our patients.

I tell my patients if they are considering other doctors, to please please please only consider Board-Certified doctors, and not just certified by any made-up board. I wouldn’t want a patient to have cataract or Lasik surgery on their eyes by a gynecologist, or a C-section by a orthopedic surgeon, or their heart-attack managed by their pediatrician.

So it only makes sense that a patient should go to a doctor that is board-certified by one of the only two boards that are members of the legitimate body of American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS). Those two sub-specialty boards are “The American Board of Plastic Surgery” or (ABPS www.abplsurg.org) for certifying doctors in the full and comprehensive field of plastic surgery and the sub-sub-specialty board “The American Board of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery” (ABFPRS www.abfprs.org) for surgeons who want to achieve even a higher level of distinction for doing plastic surgery of the face.

Remember, if the words “American Board” and “Plastic Surgery” don’t appear in the board designation, the individual claiming board-certification is NOT CERTIFIED IN PLASTIC SURGERY by any of the member boards of the authoritative ABMS which is a recognized by the AMA (American Medical Association)

Do patients respect the fact that I am double board-certified by both the American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Board of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery? I think so. But that is not why good doctors become board-certified. We do it because we respect our patients and our patients deserve our honesty and the best-educated ethical surgeons.

Board-certification in plastic surgery means we respect our patients.

Written by: Navin Singh MD