Tennessee Cosmetic Surgery | The Plastic Surgery Group P.C.

Roy Exum: Best Of The What?
by Roy Exum
posted September 3, 2011


Roy Exum

For the last several years, the Chattanooga newspaper has found a “Best of the Best” popularity contest is a very lucrative way to make money. The newspaper pushes a full-page “ballot” repeatedly where presumably its readers can nominate everything from “The Best Hamburger” to “The Best Radio Personality” to the “Best Car Dealer.”

Some are so naïve that they vote for the “Best Hair Salon” and “Best Sports Bar” in innocence, but actually the newspaper could care less. It uses the so-called contest to sell many ads, a table-for-10 (for $500) at an awards banquet, and so forth. It’s a sales gimmick – pure and simple - and it’s been a gold mine.

Unfortunately, there are some who abuse the system. A restaurant might have its waitresses laboriously fill out blank ballots between the lunch and dinner crowds. Some scamps, in cut-throat competition based on greed, actually hire different public-relations firms to “stuff the ballot box” and still others work under a misguided notion the bigger the ad they buy the better their chances.

Personally I’ve never paid much attention to the thing, other than to laugh at many of the winners and wonder who on earth picked them. I happen to know who’s got the best of just about anything – this from experience – but if buying a big “vote for me” half-page ad with a color picture tickles somebody’s ego that’s fine by me.

Not long ago a friend of mine got a packet from the newspaper to inform him that his company “has just been selected as a 2011 Best of the Best top three pick!” Enclosed was a form if he was interested in buying advertising (cha-ching!), a form allowing him to buy as many window stickers as he wanted at $3.00 each (cha-ching!), and information on the individual $50 awards-dinner tickets (cha-ching!) with free valet parking.

The trouble is that my friend is a board-certified surgeon and, like virtually every other board-certified physician in Chattanooga, is expressly prohibited from taking part in such folly. It is a clear violation of medical ethics and there is a belief that many other professional persons, whether a lawyer or engineer or dentist or even a hospital, may also be in violation under varying ethical canons.

The American College of Surgeons, in its Bylaws, expressly prohibits its membership from “participating in communications to the public which convey false, untrue, deceptive, or misleading information through statements, testimonials, photographs, graphics, or other means, or which omit material information about which the communication is deceptive.”

While we know the “Best of the Best” is an advertising ploy, I have learned after informally talking to a group of doctors at Erlanger Hospital this week that there is a far-more serious aspect. While there are some very capable and honorable doctors and lawyers who love to see their picture in the newspaper regardless of cost, there is an ominous side.
Believe it or not, there are some less-than-reputable physicians who see the “Best of the Best” as a way to lure patients to their offices despite the fact they may not have hospital privileges nor belong to the professional societies that insist and require strong medical ethics.

Several years ago a local plastic surgeon was the “Best of the Best” winner, but when state medical and law-enforcement authorities began to scrutinize his questionable practice, it is believed he took his own life. Sadly, there are some professionals with questionable standards in Chattanooga today whose are quite similar and would “buy a vote” in a heartbeat.

Sometime last year a doctor based at Erlanger, Mark Brzezienski, who is a noted and well-respected plastic surgeon in Chattanooga, wrote the newspaper a letter of concern about the “Best of the Best” contest. Obviously the letter was never published – are you kidding me? – but allow me to present it because, although it was written in 2010, I believe Dr. Brzezienski hits the mark:

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“Last week I was informed by the Times Free Press that The Plastic Surgery Group has been nominated as one of three ‘Best Plastic Surgeons’ in your recent reader’s poll. We are very grateful to our patients who took the time to complete your survey. However, the enthusiasm we have for our participation in the ‘Best of …’ activities involving our physicians is tempered by our concerns about how these ‘contests’ serve our patient community.

“The TFP has reported on the problematic nature of insurance companies rating of physicians, and how the reputations of even our most-respected doctors in our community can suffer from inaccuracies in flawed ratings data. ‘The Best’ doctors, in my opinion, are that rare breed who combine rigorous intellectual training, technical prowess, and a strong commitment to education and community service.

“From the healthcare services standpoint, I worry about that ‘The Best of ….’ contests may be thinly-veiled advertising campaigns. (Shortly after our nomination I received a call from the TFP regarding a selection of advertising packages that are available for purchase to insure that the community is properly informed.)

“I am not anti-advertising; but when a community newspaper icon, such as the TFP, lends its ‘stamp-of-approval’ to a specific health-care provider by indicating they are ‘The Best,’ loyal readers will surmise that the paper has used its considerable investigative capacity to be certain that the selection measures up to that high standard.

“We have no way of knowing whether or not the people who submitted the votes have any experience with the physicians they selected, if at all. I find that particularly troubling.
From my neck of the woods, I cannot understand why plastic surgery and cosmetic surgery are two separate selection categories. I have had the honor of training about 30 board-certified plastic surgeons in the past 15 years. I can tell you that, without question, they all consider themselves as cosmetic surgeons and rightly so.

“I hope this odd categorical distinction has not sprung from the issues brought forth in your (2010) piece on the ‘Aesthetic Turf Wars’ amongst local surgeons. I fear that it may be that this group of physicians is more likely to purchase competing ad space than other less media-visible medical subspecialties.

“Our community is still reeling from the effects of the practice of the cosmetic surgeon mentioned in your (2010) article. He had significant media presence in our community, and he had been voted “Best Plastic Surgeon” in Chattanooga in another newspaper poll.

“The Plastic Surgery Group recognized the choice of one’s physician/surgeon is a confusing process that requires diligent research. The trust that our patients have in our practice with referral of their friends and family is the greatest compliment that our Group can be paid.

“We are certainly pleased that our patients would go out of their way to nominate us in your ‘Best of …’ contest. However, we have significant trepidations regarding the support of any medical popularity contest when we reflect ‘how and if’ contests of this nature provide beneficial impact on health care in Chattanooga.

For the Plastic Surgery Group,
Mark A. Brzezienski, M.D.