FAQs

SurgeonCheck recommends only those surgeons who meet both our minimum case volume requirements and our high‑quality performance criteria. If a surgeon you’re expecting to see does not appear on the list, it may be for one or more of the following reasons:

• Claims not available: In rare cases, we do not have claims from a specific surgeon and therefore cannot evaluate their performance.
• Insufficient case volume: The surgeon may not have performed the minimum number of procedures required for us to make a statistically reliable quality assessment. This minimum varies by procedure type.
• Does not meet our high‑quality rating criteria: We evaluate multiple outcomes and performance indicators. If a surgeon does not meet our quality thresholds, they will not appear on the recommended list.

While your primary care doctor is a trusted advisor and has your best interest in mind, you should not rely solely on him or her to select your surgeon. Primary care doctors are generalists and do not have in-depth knowledge of a surgeon’s specific outcomes with your particular procedure. Their surgeon recommendations may be based on factors like convenience and in-network status or professional relationships. By utilizing SurgeonCheck’s objective and outcomes-driven recommendations, you can feel confident in your selection.

Your surgery is not guaranteed to be successful if you select a SurgeonCheck recommended surgeon. However, using SurgeonCheck to find a high-performing surgeon increases your chances of a successful surgery. Here’s why: SurgeonCheck’s evaluation is heavily weighted to outcomes. This means surgeons recommended on our site have a history of successful procedures.

SurgeonCheck is a resource designed to help you find high-performing surgeons for elective procedures. Here’s how it works and why you can trust our recommendations:

How SurgeonCheck Evaluates Surgeons:

• Focus on Outcomes: SurgeonCheck goes beyond simply looking at a surgeon’s credentials. We use nearly 300 outcome-focused measures – developed and reviewed by a team of board-certified and fellowship-trained surgical specialists – to evaluate surgeon quality.
• Tailored Approach: Our measures consider various aspects, including complications, appropriateness, operative method, and diagnostic method, among other factors. Importantly, the metrics are customized for each procedure, recognizing the unique nature of each surgery.
• Benchmarking: SurgeonCheck compares each surgeon’s performance against national benchmarks established by peer-reviewed medical literature and validated or adjusted via SurgeonCheck’s machine learning algorithms and binning. National benchmarks ensure that all patients are directed to surgeons with the best outcomes and they allow us to identify “Surgeons of Excellence” locally.

Why You Can Trust SurgeonCheck Recommendations:

• Rigorous Development: Our team dedicated over six years to developing and rigorously testing the evaluation logic and quality measures before entering the marketplace. 
• Advanced Data Analysis: SurgeonCheck utilizes machine learning to address potential biases in data sets due to varying case volumes among surgeons. This further strengthens the validity of our ratings.
• Commitment to Improvement: Our team continuously refines the platform and measures to maintain its position as the leading resource for surgical recommendations.

This is a common misconception! While all surgeons have gone through extensive training, there is significant variation in their experience and outcomes. Just like any other profession, there is a bell curve of performance.

No, SurgeonCheck does not allow surgeons to pay to be one of our recommended surgeons.

Surgeons must meet the criteria below to be included on our site:

1. National Registry Listing: A surgeon must be listed with the National Provider Identifier Registry (NPIR).
2. Procedure Focus: A surgeon must perform one of the procedures we evaluate.
3. Minimum Case Volume: A surgeon must have performed a statistically significant minimum number of cases for one of the procedures we evaluate. The minimum case volume varies by procedure.
4. High-Quality Rating: Ultimately – and most importantly – only surgeons who receive a high-quality rating through SurgeonCheck’s evaluation process are recommended on this site. 

We don’t accept patient reviews as they are subjective and vary depending on individual experiences. Our evaluation is built on objective data and measures, focusing on surgeon outcomes as the key indicator of quality care.

SurgeonCheck stands out from other surgeon recommendation platforms in several key ways:

1. Focus on Outcomes: SurgeonCheck prioritizes objective data on a surgeon’s success rates and complication rates. This outcome-based approach goes beyond other platforms, which often rely on process measures, reference pricing, and/or subjective reviews.
2. Tailored Metrics: SurgeonCheck uses a customized set of measures for each surgical procedure because surgery is not “one size fits all.” This delivers a more nuanced picture of a surgeon’s performance compared to generic metrics applied wholesale across all procedures.
3. Objectivity: SurgeonCheck does not accept payments from surgeons or hospitals or patient reviews to avoid bias. This ensures our evaluations are based solely on objective data.
4. Focus on Individuals: SurgeonCheck evaluates each surgeon individually, for every procedure that he or she performs, rather than aggregating the data at the specialty (e.g., orthopedics), practice group, or facility level as a whole.

No, SurgeonCheck recognizes that “one size does not fit all” in surgery.

1. Procedure-Specific Focus: We use distinct sets of quality measures for each procedure we evaluate. This ensures the measures are relevant and capture the nuances of success for each particular surgery.
2. Data-Driven Approach: All of our measures are objective and based on medical literature. This ensures a standardized and reliable evaluation process.
3. Expert Review: A medical board comprised of board certified and fellowship-trained surgical sub-specialists reviews the measures to guarantee their relevance and effectiveness.
4. Focus on Fairness: We actively exclude measures susceptible to manipulation by surgeons, ensuring a fair evaluation.

No, you don’t necessarily need to go to a Center of Excellence for good care. Most elective procedures can be performed in your local area by “Surgeons of Excellence” on our recommended list.

No, SurgeonCheck does not evaluate emergency surgeries as they involve unforeseen circumstances and urgent interventions. This makes it challenging to compare outcomes across surgeons in a standardized “apples-to-apples” way, and thus is not a fair evaluation.

Health Plan “Find A Doctor” tools can be a resource, but they do not provide all the information you need to select a high-quality surgeon. These tools typically focus on basic details like location, insurance participation, education, specialties, credentials, and sometimes even patient reviews. While there are times this can be helpful, they lack information on a surgeon’s experience or objective quality.

SurgeonCheck evaluates all surgeons who have completed the statistically significant minimum number of cases for evaluation. The case volume minimum varies by procedure.

You cannot look up a specific surgeon on our site. If he or she is a high-quality surgeon for the procedure you are searching for and located within 25 miles of the zip code you enter, their name will be on our list of recommendations.

Our national dataset consisting of longitudinal insurance claims is derived from multiple payer sources, and allows us to assess approximately 27 million procedures annually. We receive data refreshes every 6 months to ensure that we are providing the most accurate and timely evaluations. Board certifications are verified through the American Board of Medical Specialties.

To contact our customer support team, please e-mail help@surgeoncheck.com.

No, please contact surgeons directly to schedule appointments.

You’re right, surgery is a complex procedure that involves a skilled team. Here’s why surgeon expertise still matters:

1. The Surgeon Leads: While nurses, anesthesiologists, and others play vital roles, the surgeon is the leader of the operating team and is responsible for your outcome. They make critical decisions throughout the procedure, ensuring clear communication and well-defined roles for everyone involved.

2. Skill Matters: A surgeon’s experience and technical skills significantly impact the outcome. Their expertise in performing the specific procedure, along with their ability to adapt to unforeseen circumstances, can influence success rates and patient recovery.

Yes! We understand that you may lack the information you need to assess and continually improve your performance. Transparency is the heart of SurgeonCheck and we operate on a “glass box” basis. When you know better, you can do better! Please contact help@surgeoncheck.com for additional detail.

If your question wasn’t addressed here, please contact us at help@surgeoncheck.com and a member of our team will be happy to help.