How should colleagues respond to diminishing capacities of an aging surgeon?

Abstract

When an esteemed elderly colleague needs assistance completing procedures safely, fellow health professionals have the responsibility to respond in order to mitigate risk to patients. There is a strong ethical basis for bringing the surgeon's declining capacity to his or her attention as well as to the attention of others. Ongoing capacity assessments could be one method for tracking diminished capacities among surgeons so that they can stop practicing surgery before putting patients at risk.