Abstract
Background
The aim of this study was to determine the risk of occupational musculoskeletal injury
during a surgeon's career and the effects of these injuries for patients, providers,
and institutions. We hypothesized that surgeons have occupational injuries, which
affect work performance.
Materials and methods
Electronic RedCAP surveys on workplace injury were distributed statewide via e-mail
to the members of the Tennessee chapter of the American College of Surgeons. Descriptive
statistics were used to analyze survey data.
Results
A total of 260 of 793 surveys (33%) were returned. Forty percent of surgeons sustained
≥1 injuries in the workplace. Although 50% of injured surgeons received medical care
for their most recent injuries, only 20% of these injuries were reported to their
institution. Twenty-two percent of injured surgeons missed work and 35% performed
fewer operations while they were recovering from their injury. Fifty-three percent
of injured surgeons reported that pain from their injury had a minimal or moderate
effect on their performance in the operating room.
Conclusions
Surgeons appear to be at moderate risk for occupation-related injuries. The low rate
of institutional reporting for these injuries is concerning, as this is a required
step to access institutional support once injured. Surgeon injury results in lost
productivity due to missed workdays and may impact the quality of surgical care because
of performance issues while recovering from injury.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: March 17, 2014
Accepted:
March 5,
2014
Received in revised form:
February 13,
2014
Received:
December 31,
2013
Footnotes
This work was presented as a poster presentation at the 2013 American College of Surgeons Annual Clinical Congress in Washington, DC, October 6–10.
Identification
Copyright
© 2014 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
