The average surgical patient understands far less about perioperative care than they think they do. That’s not a criticism — it’s a structural problem with how medical information reaches people. Dr. Andrew Hummel has made it part of his practice mission to close that gap.
Key Takeaways
- Most patients cannot accurately describe what an anesthesiologist does, which limits their ability to participate meaningfully in pre-operative preparation.
- Health literacy in the perioperative context is directly linked to safer surgical outcomes — informed patients follow pre-op protocols more carefully and disclose more complete medication histories.
- Patient review platforms like Healthgrades give patients their first real opportunity to research their anesthesiologist before the morning of surgery arrives.
Here’s something worth sitting with for a moment. Most people who have been under general anesthesia couldn’t accurately describe what their anesthesiologist actually did during their procedure. They know someone put them to sleep. Beyond that, it’s largely a blank. This isn’t unusual. It’s also not the patient’s fault.
Perioperative care is a world with its own language, its own logic, and its own protocols. None of it gets routinely explained to the people going through it. Most patients walk into a pre-op room having done extensive research on their surgeon — and almost none on the physician who will manage their airway, consciousness, and pain for the entire duration of surgery.
Dr. Andrew Hummel thinks that’s a problem worth fixing, not just from an educational standpoint, but also from a clinical one.
Why Health Literacy Affects Surgical Safety
A patient who doesn’t understand why “nothing by mouth” or NPO compliance matters is more likely to eat something they shouldn’t the morning of surgery. A patient who doesn’t understand medication reconciliation is more likely to forget to mention the fish oil, the ginkgo, or the GLP-1 injection they’ve been taking weekly. These feel like small gaps. However, in the operating room, they aren’t.
Dr. Hummel has described the NPO rule in direct terms. Under general anesthesia, the airway is unprotected. Food or liquid sitting in the stomach can enter the lungs. That’s pulmonary aspiration — and it can be fatal. The rule isn’t bureaucratic caution. It is a physiological safeguard built around what the body does when consciousness is removed.
Medication reconciliation is equally consequential. Anticoagulants, cardiac medications, and certain supplements carry real pharmacological effects that directly influence how an anesthesiologist plans and executes a case. A complete and honest medication list, as Dr. Hummel puts it, is “one of the most useful things a patient can bring to a pre-op appointment.” A quick look at Dr. Andrew Hummel’s Healthgrades page reflects his focus on patient education.
When patients understand why these protocols exist, they follow them more carefully. When they follow them more carefully, the anesthesiologist walks into the operating room with a clearer picture of what they’re working with. That clarity translates into better decision-making under pressure — the chain of cause and effect is direct.
For many patients reviewing Dr. Andrew Hummel, Healthgrades listings are a practical first step toward that clarity. Health literacy starts with access to clear, reliable information before surgery begins. That’s where platforms like Healthgrades enter the picture.
The Role of Patient Review Platforms
Until relatively recently, patients had almost no way to research their anesthesiologist before the day of surgery. Surgeons had online profiles, hospital affiliations, and searchable review histories built up over years. Anesthesiologists were largely invisible to the pre-operative patient. You found out who yours was when they introduced themselves in the pre-op bay, often minutes before you were wheeled into the operating room.
Platforms like Healthgrades have meaningfully changed this. Dr. Andrew Hummel maintains a verified profile on Healthgrades where patients can review his board certifications, clinical background, and patient experience ratings independently and in advance of their procedure. For many patients, this is the first time they’ve had any window into who their anesthesiologist actually is before surgery day.
The practical effect is more significant than it might initially appear. A patient who has looked up their anesthesiologist, confirmed their credentials, and read about their approach to patient communication arrives at the pre-op appointment with a fundamentally different level of engagement than one who is meeting a complete stranger with a surgical suite waiting behind them.
They ask better questions, disclose more completely, and come in with a baseline of trust rather than baseline anxiety — all of these outcomes translate directly into a safer and more efficient surgical experience for everyone involved.
Demystifying the Role
Dr. Hummel doesn’t limit his push for health literacy to individual patient visits. Whether he’s publishing educational resources, mentoring doctors for their American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA) oral board exams, or talking with patients right before surgery, his focus stays the same — make perioperative care simple and easy for real people to understand.
Part of what makes this commitment unusual is that it comes from someone at the senior end of the specialty. A six-time 417 Top Doctor Award recipient in Anesthesiology, a board-certified ABA Diplomate with over twelve years of clinical experience, and the founder of the Dr. Andrew Hummel Scholarship for Medical Students — he has enough standing in the field to leave the public-facing work to others. He chooses not to.
“The safest surgery,” he has stated, “is the one where nothing surprises the anesthesiologist.” Getting there starts with a patient who understands what their anesthesiologist actually needs from them, and why. That understanding doesn’t happen by accident. Someone has to build it. Dr. Hummel has decided that someone can be him.
