Patients these days often look for the best deal in town. But by searching for the cheapest price some get more than they bargained for. Making the price of your procedure the most important factor in choosing your doctor or facility is not the best way of thinking. In fact, it has cost some people the highest price of all.
In most major cities there are clinics that offer very low prices for procedures that cost more when performed by board certified plastic surgeons in their own private practice. These clinics usually advertise a tremendous amount and make up for the lower profit with volume. One such clinic in south Florida is Strax Rejuvenation. This facility is known for very low prices, but also has a history of significant complications. Just last week a patient having a procedure at Strax Rejuvenation had to be taken to a nearby hospital due to a complication that occurred during surgery. She died three days later. This is the latest of four known deaths in the last two years. That is staggering number. In their defense Strax officials may claim that they perform a very high number of procedures and that the actual mortality rate is not so bad when you account for the number of procedures being done. Well, lets examine that for a moment.
In a study published by the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) in 1997, after looking at 400,000 cases the mortality rate was 1 in 51,459 cases. If you look at a two year period that would be an impossible number of cases to perform, even for Strax, to account for four deaths. Strax claims 14 doctors, not all plastic surgeons. Even if we give them the benefit of the doubt and assume all 14 are plastic surgeons, every doctor at Strax would have to perform more than 27 operations every day of the week (Mon-Fri) every week of the month for the entire year to match that mortality rate. In actuality, if we assume that all 14 surgeons perform 4 operations every day (Mon-Fri) every week of the year for the same two year period, the actual mortality rate at Strax would be approximately 1 in 7400 cases – more than SEVEN TIMES the mortality rate published by ASAPS.
So when you are thinking about having a procedure and looking to save money, you would probably be safer to stick with plastic surgeons that are certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and in their own private practice. You might have to pay a few dollars more, but if you look for the biggest bargain in town you might end up paying more than you ever thought possible.
To learn more about patient safety, please check out my latest radio show episode.
