February 5, 2026

Clear for Surgery

Mom had what we believe was a successful surgery at the smallest hospital yet (but beautiful and newly renovated). A well-respected surgeon from an orthopedic practice in the area performed a knee replacement Monday on Mom and a fantastic rehab associated with the small hospital accepted Mom Wednesday so we are hoping for a full recovery and the second replacement coming up soon. But in order to be cleared for the surgery she, understandably had an appointment with her PCP (sadly the one she had, who we loved, was leaving for a specialty practice, but we did get to choose another doctor in the practice who is fantastic as well). She also had to be cleared by cardiology, (also something we understood) so even though we were enjoying a stretch of time where we were told to return in 2 years to cardiology for the next check up, we headed in for an in-person appointment. This led to a test at the hospital being necessary and then on the day of that test at the small hospital it took 4 nurses to get an IV in Mom and then the images were not clear enough so we had to go back to undergo that test a second time. They were very apologetic and accommodating, but the hours at pre-surgery appointments really added up. Then after being required by the surgeon’s practice to have an pre-surgery clearance check-up appointment with her PCP we had to then come to one of the surgeon’s offices to meet with one of their nurse practitioners to also take vitals and check Mom to clear her for surgery (though we did have a previous appointment with a surgeon’s PA at that practice to check mom and answer questions and to schedule surgery). Then we received a lengthy call from a nurse a few days before surgery asking the questions that had already been answered countless times. Very thorough of course. Nothing wrong with being thorough. But yet was each appointment really necessary? Especially the PCP plus the nurse practitioner at the surgeon’s practice. What qualifies as overkill? Is there really added value at a certain point?