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MR. IRA SLAVIT: More than half of certain medical procedures such as surgeries, colonoscopies, endoscopies, rhinoplasty, breast reduction or augmentation are performed by doctors in what's called office-based facilities. That is surgeries not done in a hospital operating room, but in an operating room or other similar situation in a doctor's office.

The law in New York has now been changed to require that all such office-based facilities be accredited by one of three accreditation groups, otherwise the doctor operating that facility will lose his license. This is a toughening of the law that obviously is a result of reported incidents of too many and unacceptably high number of improperly run facilities.

You should not assume that just because a doctor at his office calls something an operating room that it is properly accredited and that it is really a safe place for you to have undergone a procedure. For more information about the law, or if you've been involved in this type of situation, please call Levine & Slavit and ask for Leonard or Ira.