Ethics of over-scheduling: When enough becomes too much

You are a busy vascular surgeon who takes emergency room call in a large private hospital with resident staff. As usual, your first two cases took longer than expected and you are getting ready to start a third case before the elective schedule doses and operating room (OR) staffing drops off. Between cases, you were consulted to perform a percutaneous tracheotomy on a patient in the intensive care unit (ICU) and now can either join a vascular surgery resident, who is waiting to perform the procedure, or start your third elective case. The resident is highly skilled, has passed general surgery boards, and has done many such procedures successfully. You have plans to attend a daughter's gymnastics meet. You have a busy clinic scheduled tomorrow. How should you handle this?