Doc-blocked

Doc-blocked.

Simple enough phrase.

When your doc (or surgeon) has been blocked by another department or case.

*cough, cough, OB*

When a phone call occurs and it is a surgeon telling you about a case, that starts the clock that all other add ons will be after.

Regardless of department.

Regardless of details by the surgeon. Those can be gathered later.

This is one of the foundation stones of scheduling for the OR.

Other cases may trump urgency, but the steps still need to be done.

If the other surgeon feels their case has precedence, there is a bumping protocol that has been established.

Or, you know, the anesthesia department can call in their call person if the case is OB related.

There are some questions to ask yourself instead of blindly acceding case priority out of turn.

Is the case for the OR urgent?

Is the patient for the OR urgent? Say, bleeding profusely, with a low blood pressure?

Further conversations need to be had when calls come in practically simultaneously.

Or, as my surgeon said when he had to wait two+ hours to start his urgent case, someone is going to get hosed.

Or, to use my new phrase, doc-blocked.