How to choose a surgeon, doctor for medical surgeries

3. UNCOVER PROFESSIONAL REPRIMANDS Knowing if a doctor has been sanctioned by a professional licensing board should be an essential part of your search. For a $9 fee, the FSMB will provide

the disciplinary history of specific doctors in any state (click Credentialing, then Physician Data Services on its website).  State medical boards also have doctor profiles that include

board certifications, board actions, criminal convictions and medical malpractice claims. The FSMB has links to state websites. 4. CHECK RATINGS, NUMBER OF PROCEDURES PERFORMED AND

COMPLICATION RATES ProPublica and Consumers’ Checkbook both have websites where they rate surgeons and provide information on the number of procedures and complication rates, based on recent

Medicare data. To be fair to the surgeons, both adjust their results to allow for patients’ health status, age and other factors, as some surgeons take on sicker or more frail patients.

Plug in your zip code at the ProPublica website, and you’ll find a directory of local hospitals that perform eight common procedures, along with surgeons on staff who perform them, the

number of procedures they’ve done and their complication rates.  "TOO MANY PEOPLE ARE BEING CUT OPEN WHEN THEY ARE IDEAL CANDIDATES FOR MINIMALLY INVASIVE PROCEDURES." Marty

Makary, M.D. SurgeonRatings.org, from the nonprofit group Consumers’ Checkbook, provides a more comprehensive analysis that encompasses more than 5 million operations performed by 50,000

surgeons. It compares surgeons’ results for 12 types of surgery.  HOW TO INTERVIEW A SURGEON After you have narrowed your choices of potential surgeons, it’s time to set up an appointment

for them to review your case, and for you to review them. Here are several questions you should be sure to ask and the types of answers you should get in return. CAN THIS BE DONE WITH

MINIMALLY INVASIVE SURGERY?  This technique entails inserting several thin instruments and a video camera inside the body through small incisions. The camera, which transmits images onto a

television monitor, becomes a surgeon’s eyes as he or she performs the procedure.  Many common surgeries now can be done laparoscopically through these keyhole incisions. There are many

benefits — less pain, quicker recovery, fewer infections, shorter hospital stays, less medication. Yet some surgeons aren’t trained in these techniques, so they might not tell patients about

this type of operation. “Too many people are being cut open when they are ideal candidates for minimally invasive procedures,” says Marty Makary, a surgeon and researcher at the Johns

Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THESE OPERATIONS INVOLVE OPEN SURGERY, VERSUS THOSE THAT ARE MINIMALLY INVASIVE? WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES IN COMPLICATION RATES

AND THE LENGTH OF HOSPITAL STAYS FOR EACH?  The benefits of minimally invasive surgery vary by operation, and not everyone is a good candidate for this approach. The answers to these

questions will tell you which type the surgeon favors and why. “The same patient conditions can be treated with two radically different standards of care, and the choice of which procedure 

matters,” Makary says.  HOW OFTEN HAVE YOU PERFORMED THIS SURGERY, AND DO YOU SPECIALIZE IN IT?  When surgeons perform certain procedures with regularity, they improve and are better 

equipped to deal with complications. A 2009 study, for example, found that the risk of serious complications from the most common form of gastric bypass surgery fell by 10 percent for every

additional 10 cases per year the surgeon performed.  Volume is especially important for new, uncommon or complex procedures. One Dartmouth College study found that among people undergoing

pancreatic cancer surgery, annual death rates were nearly four times higher for those treated by surgeons who performed the fewest operations compared to those who performed the most. More

recent research suggests that specialization may be even more important than volume. A 2016 study in the _British Medical Journal_ looked at eight complex procedures. It found that

specializing in a particular procedure — for example, performing only heart valve replacements — significantly cut the risks of complications and mortality.