Safety First

At his Florham Park office, plastic surgeon Dr. Joseph Fodero says patient safety is his top priority. In this clip, Dr. Fodero talks about being "vigilant" all the time.

DR. JOSEPH FODERO: My patients’ safety is my primary concern. Of course they’re coming to see because they would like to have a beautiful result, but my first concern is to have them get through the procedure, whatever that procedure is, safely. And there are a variety of things that we can do to safeguard our patients. The first is very simple, is taking a very good medical history and addressing any underlying medical problems that that patient may have. The second is to determine what surgical procedures are safe for them, what surgical procedures can be combined safely, and the decision has to be made where the procedure should be done. There are times when the use of a hospital makes the most sense. There are times when the use of my facility makes the most sense for overall patient safety and experience. From the beginning of the consultation process to the final post-op visit, we take meticulous care of our folks, meticulous history-taking, follow-up, all the surgery is done in an appropriate facility with the appropriate of anesthesia and nursing. It’s basically being vigilant all the time. We have close follow-up for all of our patients. So if anything even begins to go wrong, we’re there to take care of it.