What is ‘best’?
A colleague of mine mentioned to me that he was the fastest and best surgeon… and it struck me as odd that he would feel compelled to make such a statement. In my experience, speed kills and causes all kinds of other complications. And it made me think about just who is the ‘best’? I have never esposed to be the best because I know I am not. I am conscientious, wise from my experience and humble about my outcomes. I will always do my best to get the best outcome for my patient. So what does this other surgeon imply when he says he is the best? I was in a group where one doctor’s complications outnumbered the other doctor’s complications combined! But this one individual thought he was the best. I had a colleague who always took longer in the OR then estimated, presumably to be more careful with his surgery. But did this make him ‘best’? I can’t say our results would support that. So I guess ‘best’ is a deceiving term and in the end meaningless amongst colleagues. I certainly wouldn’t want a doctor who thought of himself as the best but failed to deliver on that concept repeatedly. Its a perception and reality of how you treat your patients that makes you good, and perhaps the best in their eyes. And in the end, that is all that matters.