Are Surgery Centers Safe?

I am glad you wrote about surgical centers. Our daughter had a terrible experience with one in Florida. She had a mastectomy

and started bleeding. It took two hours for an ambulance to come to transport her to a hospital. Needless to say, we think surgical centers are a bad idea. —Joyce clampitt Mount Horeb, Wisconsin

I am a registered nurse and have worked in surgery centers since 1982. In all my experience, we have never had someone die because no one knew what to do or we called for help too late. We are all highly trained for emergencies and certified in our fields and in advanced life support. And we are scrutinized by the Joint Commission’s Ambulatory

Care Accreditation program, the state, and Medicare. I was not happy that your article gave the impression that all surgery centers are bad.

—Barbara Westerman Eagle, Colorado