The gown card reads “Hoarding is not a good look and leads to panic.”
Yes, this is an operating room topic that I’ve written about before.
Yes, this is something that is happening in the real world right now because of hurricanes.
Yes, I am a bit late covering this for the hurricanes. Gee, Kate, Helene, and Milton were like TEN days ago. What? I live in North Carolina and I’ve been busy.
To be explicit, I’ve been busy with school, not with horrific water damage.
Hoarding is what happens when the OR fears that there won’t be a piece of equipment, a surgical supply, or a certain instrument(s) available for their case.
Instead of considering the entire picture of the surgery schedule and the fact that the case that needs X isn’t until late afternoon, with plenty of time to turn it over, they take X and hide it.
I am talking about any number of things in the operating room. An irrigation machine, a video tower, everyone’s FAVORITE C-arm, a battery, it can be any number of things. Most egregious is when the room doesn’t even need it for any of their cases but squirrels it away so 1) no one else can have it or 2) they can look like a hero to their doctor who might (emphasis on might) need it.
This is problematic for a variety of reasons.
It breaks trust in the department.
It makes it look like the department urgently needs a supply. It doesn’t, the supply is in a drawer in a room, location known only to the person who put it there. And maybe their work bestie. You now, for days they are not there.
The team members in question are greedy and desperate to be the hero when THEIR surgeon needs X and they abra cadabra produce it.
This is just as big of a problem as it is in the real world.
In the real world, I am talking about toilet paper.
Of course, I am.
The same reasons apply.
People are afraid that they won’t have it in case of emergency. Or what they think is an emergency or because Debbie Down the Street has it and I need it. ‘ll buy it ALL up and I will have it all. I will corner the market in tissue paper.
Just don’t. You have enough toilet paper, water, canned goods, etc. Leave some for people who really need it.
Did covid hoarding teach us nothing?
Dispatches from the Evening Shift 