Tallahassee, Fla. – An advocacy and education coalition, Surgeons for Safety, officially launched its organization today. Surgeons for Safety is comprised of board-certified plastic surgeons whose mission is to focus on educating and advocating for safety measures as it relates to gluteal fat grafting procedures in Florida and promoting common-sense measures for the plastic surgery industry as a whole based on proven scientific and medical data.
On June 3, 2022, the Florida Board of Medicine approved Emergency Order #64B15ER22-4, which limited the number of procedures board-certified plastic surgeons could perform in a day and required techniques that are contrary to the training received and the way these procedures are performed. On June 20, 2022, Surgeons for Safety and seven plastic surgeons filed to block the emergency order in the 3rd District Court of Appeal.
“This appeal was filed to ensure careful and thoughtful consideration of serious matters, such a health procedures,” said Bruce Rogow of Bruce Rogow, P.A., on behalf of the appellants in regard to the appeal filed to block the emergency order. “Emergency orders, such as the one we are challenging, should not be used in this manner or enacted with broad sweeping changes and little evaluation or consideration of the impacts. The emergency rule does not promote safety; it actually threatens patient safety by imposing an unproven, radical departure from accepted techniques for performing gluteal fat transfers. The Board of Medicine has created an environment that is contrary to all that has been taught over the past 10-15 years. No evidence or medical data supports the promulgation of this Emergency Rule. To enact such a rule without a full opportunity to explore the consequences, the Board of Medicine has failed to abide by the Florida Statutes which require careful thought and opportunity for affected surgeons to be heard.”
“Surgeons for Safety was formed to educate and advocate for the patients in the plastic surgery industry of gluteal fat grafting procedures in Florida, as well as regulations that pertain to the medical practice,” said Dr. Constantino Mendieta, President of the Surgeons for Safety Coalition. “In addition to challenging the Board of Medicine’s Emergency Order based on its impacts on safety for patients, we intend to be a new voice in Florida’s health care industry that will seek to promote patient safety, and as the experts in this field, provide suggestions on how to meaningfully impact patient safety going forward. In the coming weeks, Surgeons for Safety will release safety measures, such as recommended educational requirements for plastic surgeons performing these procedures and will seek to work alongside our regulatory partners to achieve true safety measures.”
“The path chosen via the emergency order by the Board of Medicine on June 3 is not the correct path for the gluteal fat grafting industry, the plastic surgery industry, or the patients; however, our organization of board-certified plastic surgeons seeks to be a resource and an active partner as we chart this path together,” continued Dr. Mendieta. “We look forward to a science and fact-based approach, with patient safety as the top priority, in our collective effort to block this emergency order because it actually negatively impacts patient safety. It is our mission to have an active education and advocacy presence on any future decisions as it relates to these medical procedures, the gluteal fat grafting industry, and the plastic surgery industry.”
For more information on Surgeons for Safety, visit surgeonsforsafety.com.
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