1 6
O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 4
W
hen general surgeon Paul
Ruggieri, MD, FACS, wrote
Confessions of a Surgeon, a
blunt look at what goes on behind the
closed doors of ORs, he planned to
include a chapter on the money side
of surgery. But that chapter became
The Cost of Cutting, his new 320-page
paperback on the dirty business of
surgery (
paulruggieri.com/cost-of-cut-
ting
). That's how fed up Dr. Ruggieri
was with how backroom political
power plays and hospitals buying up
surgeons' practices in his hometown
of Fall River, Mass., impacted the
choices patients have in where they
go for care.
One turf war for cases really bothered the independent-minded
physician. A local hospital used economic credentialing to push a
well-known surgeon group out the door, forcing them to negotiate
with another hospital from a position of vulnerability. Patients who
had seen the surgeons for years at the hospital didn't have access
to them anymore.
Dr. Ruggieri had had enough. "I'm sure what's going on in my
community is emblematic of what's going on in every communi-
ty," he says.
Money generated in ORs impacts patient care. "It's becoming a
: Surgeon's Book Blasts the Big Business of Surgery
FOLLOW THE MONEY
Paul Ruggieri, MD, FACS,
is fed up with what's driving surgery.
SURGEON SCRIBE
Paul
Ruggieri,
MD,
FACS
SURGEONS'
Lounge
THE
