Lack of frequency in surgery volume raises concerns about military patient safety

( InvestigateTV ) — Dr. Peter Pronovost still vividly remembers the patient’s wife crying through the phone to him.

Her husband had gone through esophageal surgery at a Maryland hospital and, following serious complications, was later brought to Johns Hopkins, where Pronovost worked as a critical care physician.

The woman was inconsolable and grief-stricken, not just because she’d just learned that her husband would not survive. She’d also made a shocking discovery about the hospital her family originally trusted: The facility had only performed the procedure once in two years.

“It so epitomizes the problem we have because even well-educated people, I don’t think, even dream of asking. They just assume if you’re going to do something on me, you’re competent, right? And that isn’t alwa