Coming Soon: ProPublica’s Surgeon Scorecard

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Millions of patients a year undergo common elective operations – things like knee and hip replacements or gall bladder removals. But there’s almost no information available about the quality of surgeons who do them. ProPublica analyzed 2.3 million Medicare operations and identified 67,000 patients who suffered serious complications as a result: infections, uncontrollable bleeding, even death. Next week, we report the complication rates of 17,000 surgeons – so patients can make an informed choice. Sign up for our investigations email to be alerted when we publish our Surgeon Scorecard findings.


This information comes from the CMS data files available to anyone who knows how to access and utilize them.  ...

The report illumiates the drastic difference in complication rates of individual surgeons  The rate is unique for each surgeon, not hospital dependent.

Since the Propublica announcement regarding rates of surgical complications, Dr. Jen Gunter takes one case that proves how erroneous a statistic can be, as well as misleading.

Backlink to new article   POSTED BY DR. JEN GUNTER ⋅ JULY 12, 2015 ⋅

Dr. Gunter uses a personal case about her mother.  Readers can read the entire story at the backlink.

In summary she points out how some surgeons inherit or are referred other surgeon's (A) complications. Statistically the complication may show up on Surgeon B record. .  Statistics can be very misleading.  The devil is in the details