A nonprofit consumer group in late February released the names of surgeons who have the nation’s best and worst outcomes in major surgeries.
The Consumers’ Checkbook/Center for the Study of Services compiled the list based on its analysis of detailed federal records and information, including the following:
- How often did the surgeon’s patients die in the hospital or within 90 days of hospital discharge?
- How many serious complications did the surgeon’s patients experience in the hospital?
- Did the surgeon’s patients need to be readmitted to the hospital within 90 days of discharge for problems connected to the surgery?
The group highlighted the need for transparency because of the 200,000 medical error deaths that occur annually in the United States. The organization also noted that it spent years suing the government for release of the information and finally received data of more than 5 million surgeries performed by 50,000 doctors.
Available for view at no charge, the surgeon ratings are divided by surgery type and geographic area. They’re available at: www.checkbook.org/surgeonratings.
The analysis included the following surgeries:
- angioplasty or pacemaker surgery,
- aortic or lower extremity vascular surgery,
- carotid endarterectomy or angioplasty,
- femur fracture repair,
- gallbladder removal surgery,
- gastric/bariatric (obesity) surgery,
- heart valve or heart bypass surgery,
- hip or knee replacement surgery,
- lung surgery,
- major bowel surgery,
- prostatectomy/cystectomy/nephrectomy, and
- spinal cord exploration and spine fusion surgery.
The organization reported that for total hip and knee replacement, where deaths are rare, the best-rated one-tenth of surgeons had overall bad outcome rates of less than 10%. These included deaths, complications, and readmissions. By contrast, the worst-rated one-tenth had overall bad outcome rates of 24% or more.
The organization said the differences between top and bottom surgeons is dramatic, even when taking into account the frailness of their patient populations.
Touting itself as a meaningful information site, the organization also provides data about the hospitals at which the top-performing surgeons work and how well those hospitals perform.
“The more information we have, the stronger our ratings are,” said Robert Krughoff, Checkbook’s president, in a news statement.
“With this new installment of data, we are even more confident that we will be able to help many thousands of patients avoid unnecessary deaths and other bad outcomes, and the information will help doctors improve.”
Consumers’ Checkbook also provides GuidetoHospitals.org, GuidetoTopDoctors.org, and HealthPlanRatings.org.
A nonprofit consumer group in late February released the names of surgeons who have the nation’s best and worst outcomes in major surgeries.
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