Dr. William Edward Houck, MD

May I have a few minutes of your time. Vitals.com is the only forum I have for telling as many women as possible that the Board Certified OB/GYNS of Mercy actually allow residents to perform complete surgical procedures, that is, start to finish, on their purposely neglected to be told, totally unsuspecting, anesthetized patients. For your surgery it may only be part, but whichever is the case, if your Mercy doctor has not told you specifically what part of a procedure the resident is doing then your doctor has perpetrated something called "ghost surgery". "Ghost surgery" is the act of substituting one surgeon for another surgeon, supervised residents included, for any or part of a surgical procedure without the express consent of a patient who has essentially hired a specific doctor to treat them. "Ghost surgery" is considered fraud and battery of a patient (U.S. Supreme Court, 1983). Something else to seriously consider is that risks/rates of complications definitely go up when… residents are involved. Perfectly logical really when you consider many aspects of a gyno procedure can be completely blind: critical bladder dissection, sling procedures, a d&c, etc. So, how on earth can your doctor supervise that? Mercy has these statistics and I believe they should give them to you. Having a resident for your surgery is no different from other risks: anesthesia problems, bladder damage, etc. My little bit of research also led me to the ugly discovery that residents will be allowed to do an invasive bi-manual pelvic exam on you while you're in a lithotomy position and anesthetized. The Mercy doctors' thinking is you will be perfectly relaxed and excellent practice for the residents. These pelvic exams without your express consent are against the law in 4 states. HI, for example, found numerous instances of bruised cervices, torn and abraded tissue, and countless infections. While these exams are not against the law in MO, I found this to be so grossly unethical I could scarcely believe it. Then there is #4 on your consent form. Your "certified provider" (aka your Mercy, Board Certified OB/GYN with many years of experience) thinks it's okay to simply tell you a resident might be involved in your care or maybe a resident will walk in minutes before your surgery and say, "Hi, I'm the resident." The Mercy doctors think this covers their responsibility to you. It doesn't. Hopefully, I have added some info, and Good Luck with your decision.

This is a Doctor who truly cares for his patients and is extremely dedicated to his work. Five stars is not a high enough rating.

Dr. Houck is amazing! I refuse to deliver my babies with anyone else.