ENDO!!!

You know that scene in Wrath of Khan, where Captain James T. Kirk is bellowing in anger and grief “KHAN!!!”? Yeah, that one. Today I went around yelling ENDO!!! No grief but plenty of rage.

There was an 0800 hemi-arthroplasty case for an on-call doctor. An endo doc called and asked if she could go at 0730. My reaction, that I bolstered with my assistant manager via text was no. We would have been going back to the room shortly after 0730, especially with this doctor. My phone would not stop ringing; a cancellation for Monday, a second add on that wanted to be done at 0930 which I scheduled for after the hemi at 1030, and a request to schedule an endo case at 0730. I spent half of my case on the phone, setting all the pieces together to form a Sunday.

And then the hemi cancelled. I scheduled the second case for 0930, and told endo that they could go at 0800. They called and asked to add a second case, I said only if they were done by 0930, as there was a case. They called again and asked to add a third case. I said no, no, no, no, hell no.

And then the hemi surgeon called and had a second hip fracture and wanted to go at 0800. I hated to disappoint him but I had filled that spot up. We settled on 1030.

When I arrived at the hospital at 0830 I went through my usual pre-case routine. Upon realizing that there was a 7 deep queue for the transporter, my tech and I went and fetched the patient from Med-Surg. I go in search of my CRNA, who was down to do the endo case. It was 0915 and they hadn’t even started yet. They didn’t even have a patient in their department yet. They had been waiting 45 minutes for transport. No, I don’t know why they didn’t go up themselves but that’s a story for another time.

The case I told them had to be finished at 0930, in order to complete our cascade of cases for the rest of the morning, didn’t even start until 0935. ARRGGGHHH!!!

Oh, and the orthopedic surgeon had arrived forty five minutes early. Of course.

The endo case finished at 1030, throwing off my entire morning. Instead of finishing at 1130, we finished at 1330.

ENDO!!!