Dr. Natalie Sahar Barton, MD

When researching surgery options, I was advised to only have cosmetic work done by someone with a minimum of five years of experience post-fellowship. So I signed up to have a procedure done by one of the faculty at UC Irvine. This was arranged through private practice, not the university clinic. The university hospital was chosen as the site of the surgery amongst several options. The day of the surgery, the attending surgeon came in, made a few remarks, and marked the area to be the operated on with a Sharpie. A resident was also there to watch from a distance, but said nothing and was not introduced. They both then left the room. A few minutes later, Dr. Barton (a resident whom I had never met before) walked in to introduce herself, which was of course a surprise. I said there must be a misunderstanding. I had definitely not signed up for surgery to be done by a trainee, nor to be some kind of teaching case that would extend the length of time under anesthesia. She then argued… with me: "But I'm a *senior* resident." I insisted on speaking to the attending surgeon again, who fortunately cleared things up. The residents would only be doing the assisting work that would otherwise be done by nurses at a private facility. While I am happy with my surgical outcome and had a very favorable impression of all of the other medical professionals at Irvine, this was not the type of stressful situation I wanted to be dealing with minutes before going under general anesthesia. I would only go to a private facility for any cosmetic work in the future. If I really wanted a medical resident as a surgeon, I would seek out a top program. Not Irvine!