Patient Bill of Rights for South Central Texas Bone and Joint Center / Dr. Santos' Clinic

1. Dr. Santos likes to take his time with his patients and get to know them as people. He will take as much time as he deems appropriate for your condition, but one body part per patient visit. Just remember to be considerate and remember that there are patients scheduled behind you.

2. If you are pressed for time please let the staff know. You can always reschedule your appointment if needed or you can leave a cell phone number and you will be called when there is a break in the schedule. If you want your appointment to be on time, your best chance is for the first appointment of the day if you have already filled out your paperwork in advance. If Dr. Santos has an emergency surgery or consultation then odds are your appointment will not be on time.

3. Dr. Santos will strive to treat you like family. if you really want to know what he really thinks about your condition then ask: "How would you treat a family member with my same condition under the same circumstances?"

4. If you want to get the most out of your appointment then please read the literature provided by Dr. Santos and visit www.orthoinfo.org (The official orthopaedic surgery patient information web site). Once you have read over things then write down all of your questions. Dr. Santos promises to answer all of them (although you may not necessarily like the answers provided, and Dr. Santos is also a lousy fortune teller, if he were good at foretelling the future he would be sipping adult beverages in his own private island in the Caribbean). See also #1 and remember there are people behind you in line.

5. Dr. Santos will provide you with treatment options for your condition. If you want to cut to the chase then see #3 above.

6. Dr. Santos likes to use humor whenever appropriate. If you are serious he will be serious, but he will try to have you at least crack a smile or chuckle during his visit if possible. Remember laughter is the best medicine.

7. Dr. Santos is an ORTHOPAEDIC SURGEON, not a PAIN MANAGEMENT physician. If it is narcotics you seek then please see another physician. Dr. Santos prescribes narcotics primarily after surgery for a very limited amount of time. No surgery means likely no narcotics with very few exceptions. The orthopaedic surgery literature supports treating fractures with ibuprofen and plain Tylenol.  Dr. Santos rartely uses his triplicate pad to prescribe schedule II drugs and he never prescribes Soma; he will refer you to PAIN MANAGEMENT or your PCP.

8. Dr. Santos is not a Spine Surgeon. He only does evaluations for spine and will refer you to a spine surgeon if he thinks you need surgery for the spine.  Dr. Santos is not a Hand Surgeon, but he can treat a variety of simple hand and wrist conditions.  Complex hand and wrist conditions will be referred to a Hand Surgeon.

9. Dr. Santos will listen to your complaints, but that just makes him take longer with your visit and make everybody behind you mad (see #1). If you have any complaints please contact Dr. Santos via email correspondence at <santos@sctbjc.com>.  Please remember that email is not to be used to contact physicians in case of emergency. In case of emergency please dial 9-1-1 to be taken to the nearest Emergency Department.

10. It is Dr. Santos' sincere hope that this Patient Bill of Rights helps explain Dr. Santos' philosophy for his clinic. If you have any comments please don't hesitate to email him at santos@sctbjc.com or check out his website if you want to find out more about Dr. Santos and South Central Texas Bone and Joint Center:  http://www.sctbjc.com

P.S. If you want to do good things for yourself do the following:

1. Stop smoking immediately and don't start up again.

2. Lose 10% of your body weight if your BMI is over 30. (Dr. Santos endorses myfitnesspal.com)

3. Eat mostly plants and lean protein, cut out any added sugar or saturated fats in your diet (see the DASH diet).

4. Keep moving. Movement is life and will actually help arthritis not get worse!

5. If you want to avoid falling as you age take up Tai Chi or do squats regularly.

6. Swimming is great exercise for the joints. Aqua aerobics is also excellent exercise is you have arthritis. 

7. Follow the Golden Rule (not the one that says the person with all the Gold makes all the rules, the one in the Good Book!) and be kind to others. Treat others as you yourself would like to be treated.

8. Your pain is wholly yours. The government cannot take that away from you!

9. Try to smile and laugh every day. When Dr. Santos goes home he gets to see his 18 year old son and his bride and they make him laugh and fill him with joy. His 2 dogs are also entertaining and do silly things that make him laugh.  Dr. Santos is allergic to cats and thinks that they are inherently evil creatures, and they sense that and glom onto him spreading their dander and making him sneeze!

10. If Dr. Santos is violating his rules please call him out on it. He is only human and constantly needs to be reminded of that or his ego gets out of control! Being Catholic he recognizes he is a sinner. His goal in the afterlife is to go to the lowest rung of Purgatory and to slowly climb up to heaven over the next 10-20,000 years. He believes he will meet much more interesting people that way.

Copyright Erick M. Santos, M.D., Ph.D. 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017. Permission is given to distribute this document and alter it for nonprofit use as long as Dr. Santos is credited as the original author and patients can be directed to sctbjc.com to learn more about Dr. Santos and his projects.