The New York State Department of Health is investigating Bellevue Hospital’s use of unlicensed technicians to assist doctors in weight loss surgeries.
Bellevue, a large public hospital in Manhattan, puts thousands of low-income patients through bariatric surgery each year, The New York Times reported this month. Doctors are paid in part based on the volume of surgeries.
In their push for speed, bariatric surgeons sometimes ask equipment technicians to scrub and participate in surgeries because surgeons are short on assistants, two Bellevue doctors told The Times. Those technicians, who worked for an outside vendor called Surgical Solutions, were not licensed to treat patients.
The state health agency has begun an inquiry into the allegations, which could lead to a formal investigation.
“The department is looking into this matter,” an agency spokeswoman, Danielle De Souza, said Wednesday.
Christopher Miller, a spokesman for Bellevue, said the inquiry is preliminary and may not result in an actual investigation. “We are looking into your allegations and will take action as appropriate if the facts bear it out,” he added.
Surgical Solutions did not respond to requests for comment.
The use of unlicensed technicians was one of the many red flags Bellevue employees described to The Times about the bariatric program. Two surgeons race to see how many operations they can perform in one day. And anesthesiologists reduced pain medication doses so patients woke up earlier and operating rooms were cleaned faster.
Bellevue even recruited patients from New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex who had little chance of maintaining the required diets after surgery. Two said they became malnourished as a result.
After the Times article was published, executives for the Health and Hospitals Corporation, the New York City agency that oversees Bellevue, emailed employees and told them that “the article leaves out important context. ” They praised the bariatric surgery department for offering “comprehensive care and affordable, high-quality surgical services” to low-income New Yorkers.
