Patients often experience anxiety about anesthesia. This anxiety is completely normal, and we expect to encounter it from all of our aesthetic surgery patients. Please rest assured that Dr. Durkin and the entire staff at Ocean Drive Plastic Surgery have taken every possible precaution to ensure your safety during your procedure. We believe that we have created as safe an environment as possible for our patients.
How have we accomplished this?
In our surgery center at OCEAN DRIVE Plastic Surgery, we specialize in cosmetic plastic surgery of the face, breast and body.
While our operating room is designed to hospital standards and can accommodate both cosmetic and reconstructive surgery, we only perform cosmetic plastic surgery in our surgery center. Thus, we have been able to focus our staff, medical procedures, safety standards, and quality of care specifically for cosmetic plastic surgery patients. As such, we have refined our anesthetic techniques over the last decade to maximize patient recovery and minimize post operative nausea and pain. Our anesthetic techniques are performed by Board Certified MD Anesthesiologist who have adapted specialized anesthesia for our cosmetic patients. Each person’s anesthesia is tailored to fit your specific physiology and cosmetic procedure.
How do we know we deliver better anesthetics? Our patients and their friends tell us! For example, patients who choose to have a revisional breast augmentation with us after undergoing a primary breast augmentation elsewhere are able to compare the anesthesia that they experience with us from the anesthesia that they experienced with their initial breast augmentation. These patients tell us that they have less side effects from our anesthesia than they have had in prior surgeries at other facilities. They tell us that they have reduced nausea, fewer incidences of vomiting, less postoperative pain, and most tell us that they feel less fatigue after having surgery at Ocean Drive Plastic Surgery as compared to other physicians. We believe our anesthetic technique, use of MD Anesthesiologists, and preoperative preparations help improve your experience with anesthesia.
Every member of our staff was hand selected for their position based on their professional experiences and track record for delivering superior customer service. Every member of our staff is a full time employee at OCEAN DRIVE Plastic Surgery.
This means that we do not use temp agencies or per diem staffing agencies for our staff or anesthesiologists. We believe that temp agencies can be inconsistent in sending out inexperienced persons to an office to just fill-in for a day or help an office “get by”. We, on the other hand, have used the same Anesthesiologists for years. All of our Anesthesiologists and employees have experience in plastic surgery and specifically with Dr. Durkin. Every Anesthesiologist must meet specific credentials, educational, and training requirements including Board Certification.
All of our employees are also required to attend a multi-day training program for our office. This translates into a reliable and consistent care for you. This creates a pure continuity of care throughout our staff, and promotes a culture of communication and safety throughout our facility. From the front office, to the operating room, to our recovery suites, every staff member you meet is a member of our family, and will do everything possible to maintain your comfort, privacy, and safety.
We believe that physician delivered anesthesia is the safest and most comfortable form of anesthesia available in the United States. This is Dr. Durkin’s philosophy. While there are many outstanding nurse anesthetists available, Dr. Durkin always says that he wants a doctor to take care of his family’s anesthesia needs. You are no different. While it may be politically incorrect to say, there is a tangible difference between the type of anesthesia delivered by someone who spent eight to ten dedicated years studying a field as compared to someone who spent two to three years.
All aesthetic procedures that involve any type of sedation automatically involves a Board Certified Anesthesiologist that was trained within the United States, and is certified by the American Board of Anesthesiology. The Anesthesiologist meets you prior to surgery, reviews your medical history, clears you for surgery, and physically administers your anesthesia throughout your surgery.
The Anesthesiologist remains on site inside our surgery center until you have made a safe and stable recovery from anesthesia.
We believe that the foundation of safety is set long before we go to the operating room. As such, all patients who will receive any form of anesthetic are required to have a preoperative visit. At this visit, our staff obtains all of your lab work, electrocardiogram (EKG), and any pertinent medical history.
We want to do all of the laboratory and EKG work ourselves, so that we can better ensure the quality of the results. Dr. Durkin personally reviews your medical history and then submits all of the pertinent information to our anesthesiologist prior to your surgery. This process is completely private and HIPAA compliant. If our anesthesiologist has any concerns, they are preoperatively evaluated prior to your procedure. If anesthesia deems the procedure too risky, we refund your money.
Our philosophy of practice is to provide the best possible outcome in the safest possible fashion with the least amount of surgery.
This philosophy translates further into how our anesthesiologist provides anesthesia. We consistently use the least amount of anesthesia necessary for our procedures. For example, our facelift procedures are only done with a twilight level of anesthesia. We do not use breathing tubes, paralysis, or anesthetic gases for any of our facial, or breast procedures. We only use full anesthetics when required for advanced body contouring procedures. Also, we do not require anesthesia for any procedure. While we strongly recommend using anesthesia services, that decision is ultimately up to you, and your decision will guide how we proceed.
Quality control is one of the cornerstones of our success, and we continually reapply ourselves to the highest standards of excellence. There is a clear difference between plastic surgeons that invest in quality control, and those that do not.
We firmly believe in the process of quality evaluation and control and have implemented a risk management program at our office that is lead by our full time Nurse Risk Manager, Laura Meredith, RN. Our medical quality assurance program includes everything you have read on this page and also includes additional patient care and quality control parameters that we have voluntarily established at our surgery center. These include our privacy policy, surgical procedures, sterilization procedures, and standardization of patient workflow. Please see our page on quality control, and what differentiates our practice from our competitors.
Our operating room is certified by the State of Florida and is subject to both scheduled and random site visits by State Inspectors. Our medical staff is highly trained and continuously meets and exceeds state healthcare requirements. Furthermore, you are also welcome to come in for a tour of our surgery center anytime provided that we do not have surgery in progress. We are open M-F and love to show off our beautiful state-of-the art plastic surgery center and MedSpa.
All of our medications and medical supplies are purchased within the United States direct through certified, established and reputable vendors. These vendors include Johnson and Johnson, Cardinal Health, Henry Schein, PSS, Mentor, Merz, Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Allergan, and many others. All purchase orders are done through domestic vendors, and are subject to the rules and regulations of the United States Food and Drug Administration.We NEVER purchase used medical devices from Craig’s List, eBay, used medical suppliers, other physicians, or other 3rd party suppliers.
All of our medical devices are insured, inspected, and covered by warranties and/or service agreements. We also never purchase medications, including your anesthesia meds from overseas or 3rd party suppliers. We only buy medications direct from the manufacturer or produces and packages the product. All shipments are carried out in the quickest shipping option available and in accordance with FDA recommend storage guidelines. We do not accept medicines shipped by freight or ground shipping.
Dr. Durkin is dual board certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Board of Surgery. The American Board of Plastic Surgery is the only certifying board recognized for standards of excellence by the American Board of Medical Specialties. The American Board of Medical Specialties is the overlord certification body that recognizes appropriate boards of excellence from inappropriate medical boards. The American Board of Medical Specialties does not recognize the American Board of Cosmetic Surgery as a legitimate board for certification or practice.
We have associated ourselves with the most rigorous, well respected certifying boards and have avoided the unrecognized and non-standardized boards that unfortunately exist in today’s world. Let us remind you that the ONLY board recognized by the medical community for aesthetic plastic surgery are the American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Board of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Dr. Durkin is boarded by ABPS, Dr. Becker is boarded by ABFPRS. Avoid physicians that are members of the American Society of Cosmetic Surgery. They are not formally trained like members of the American Society of Plastic Surgery.
This brief overview hopefully demonstrates our dedication towards safety. While feelings of anxiety regarding anesthesia are normal, please rest assured that every possible precaution has been taken for your procedure. We are incredibly proud of our process, and we are especially prideful of our patient safety success record. Our practice has never had any adverse events that resulted in patient injury or death. We have never had a patient transferred from our operating room to another facility for medical issues. In short, we have had a flawless safety record since our inception, and we intend to maintain it.
At Ocean Drive Plastic Surgery in Vero Beach, Dr. Alan Durkin and their team of providers deliver incredible results tailored to your needs in a relaxing and uplifting atmosphere. Learn more about the Ocean Drive difference by scheduling your one-on-one diagnostic consultation with Dr. Durkin or Dr. Chim today.
5070 Florida A1A Ste A,
Vero Beach FL 32963
50 NE 26th Ave.
Pompano Beach FL 33062
Mon-Fri: 9am – 5pm
