Statistics for a specific surgeon

[plsflgood]

Is there a place where we could find statistics of the outcomes for a specific surgeon ? And what online doctor's rating sites are the most reliable ?

We are thinking to go with a certain surgeon, he is highly rated by avvo.com (this is avvo's own, now patient's, ratings), but he got one very bad patient review at ratemds.com. That's all we could find on the web for him.

 

[Lynlw]

Ask the doctor, especially since the main thig you want/need is the stats for what you need and not all heart surgeries.. I personally dont trust any of the online ratings for docs myself, but think the usnews best hospitals have alot of good info

 

[Mom2izzy]

My surgeon had a pretty scathing patient review as well, but I loved him. The things to keep in mind about patient reviews is that if they hit a "bump" people often want someone to blame, and the easiest person is the doctor.

Also, my doctor was very blunt, honest and pretty arrogant. For me, that was better than sugar coating things or being modest about his skills. You don't want "wishy washy" answers when you have questions this important. My surgeon's confidence in himself was infectious, so I was confident too. Others would probably hate him.

Another thing I learned from a different experience (unplanned C-section) its that the best are often not the most likable. When I found out who would be doing my c-section I was distraught. My last choice in the whole practice, but the nurses and my midwife said he was the best of the bunch...just not a talker.

 

[tom in MO]

I asked my surgeon about his statistics. He said that he didn't know, but that he did 100+ valves last year with no problems and most of the patients were considerably older and at risk for complications than me. On the internet, I found all of two comments, one glowing the other complaining about how their father died and the surgeon didn't communicate enough. I did find that he was involved with and led surgical clinical trials. To me this meant he was at least "up-to-date". I checked my state site and there were no disciplinary actions. I asked the doctor who referred my surgeon why him, and he had no personal knowledge of him, the referal came from the cardiac surgery scheduling group. I decided to trust the gods of medicine and not look back, and all has been well.

Per ratings of hospitals and doctors, I don't hold much faith in them. The US News and World Report listing of hospitals does not list the one I went to. It lists a competing hospital in my city as being one of the best, which IMHO, has an equal if not lower reputation compared to the unrated hospital. The highly rated hospital had trouble with its heart program and actually took doctors from the un-rated hospital to upgrade their facility. The highly rated hospital ended its transplant program due to scandal (years ago), but the un-rated one has had a successful program for years. Personally, I think the programs are equivalent, but the un-rated hospital is not-for-profit and not a state institution, thus it doesn't have as much visibility.

 

[tprice54]

New York State Dept. of Health keeps stats for each hospital and surgeon, on line. I am not sure about other states, but you could check with the state health dept.

 

[Madsometimes]

In the UK, we get national statistics for survival rates for CABG and AVR for individual hospitals, and individual surgeons working in those hospitals
http://heartsurgery.cqc.org.uk/survival.aspx

However, these stats like any others need to be viewed with caution, as they do not cover all types of valve surgery, and AFAIK they exclude re-do procedures. Heart surgeons performance are scrutinised carefully, and if a unit is falling below standard then surgery is suspended until the reasons can be determined. There was public inquiry called after too many babies died in a hospital in Bristol in the 1980's and 90's. A consequence of this is that heart surgery survival is monitored centrally.