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Orthopedics This Week • Mon, July 27th, 2015
ProPublica, an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest, created a searchable web app which allows anyone to search the Medicare database for specific hospitals or doctors and then to see their complication rates per CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services). Additionally, the app ranks both the hospitals and physicians against their peers.
Here is how ProPublica described their methodology:
Our analysis is based on billing data hospitals submitted to Medicare from 2009-2013. We analyzed 2.3 million procedures: hip and knee replacements, three types of spinal fusion, gallbladder removals, prostate removals and prostate resections. ProPublica’s analysis accounted for factors such as patients’ health and age. We focused only on elective cases because they typically involve healthier patients with the best odds of a smooth recovery.
Sources: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; ProPublica Analysis
The ProPublica researchers found that the overall complication rates in the United States are low, ranging from 2% to 4%, depending on the type of surgery.
Furthermore, ProPublica found 756 surgeons in the data who each performed at least 50 operations and who did not record a single complication in the five years covered by the analysis. Another 1, 423 surgeons had only one.
If there is an obvious conclusion from this data, it is that U.S. surgeons are excellent and have very low complication rates.
So, for the ten largest metropolitan areas in the United States; here are the best of the best. We listed the five hospitals (as measured by the ProPublica data) in each metropolitan area and one surgeon at each hospital with the lowest complication rates.
| Metro Area | Hospitals With the Lowest Complication Rates and the Physician Associated With Each Hospital With the Lowest Complication Rate |
| 10 San Jose, California | 1. Washington Hospital, Fremont (John Dearborn)
2. O’Connor Hospital, San Jose (Jeffrey Anderson) 3. Stanford Hospital, Stanford (William Maloney) 4. Dominican Hospital, Santa Cruz (James Spiegel*) 5. Sutter Maternity & Surgery Center of Santa Cruz (Howard Schwartz) |
| 9 Dallas, Texas | 1. Texas Health Presbyterian, Dallas (Michael Champine)
2. Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas (Richard Shubert*) 3. North Central Surgical Center, Dallas (Paul Peters) 4. Texas Health Presbyterian, Plano (John Barrington) 5. Baylor Medical Center Uptown, Dallas (Charles Rutherford) |
| 8 San Diego, California | 1. University of California San Diego Medical Center, San Diego (Scott Ball)
2. Scripps Memorial Hospital, Encinitas (James Helgager) 3. Grossmont Hospital, La Mesa (Peter Hanson) 4. Scripps Green Hospital, La Jolla (Steven Copp) 5. Sharp Memorial Hospital, San Diego (Mark Mcbride) |
| 7 San Antonio, Texas | 1. Christus Santa Rosa Hospital, San Antonio (David Templin*)
2. South Texas Spine and Surgical Hospital, San Antonio (Adam Harris) 3. Methodist Hospital, San Antonio (Richard Steffen*) 4. Methodist Stone Oak Hospital, San Antonio (Bryan Kaiser) 5. Baptist Medical Center, San Antonio (David Fox*) |
| 6 Phoenix, Arizona | 1. Scottsdale Healthcare – Thompson Peak Hospital, Scottsdale (Theodore Firestone)
2. Scottsdale Healthcare – Shea Medical Center, Scottsdale (Brian Miller*) 3. St. Lukes Medical Center, Phoenix (James Chow) 4. Banner Boswell Medical Center, Sun City (James Kort*) 5. Arrowhead Hospital, Glendale (Joseph Janzer) |
| 5 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | 1. Crozier Chester Medical Center, Upland (Stuart Gordon)
2. Cooper University Hospital, Camden (Dino Nicol Dejusus*) 3. Kennedy University Hospital – Stratford Div, Stratford (Alvin Ong) 4. Riddle Memorial Hospital, Media (Peter Sharkey*) 5. Main Line Hospital Bryn Mawr Campus, Bryn Mawr (Joseph Vernance) |
| 4 Houston, Texas | 1. Methodist Hospital, Houston (Leland Winston)
2. Texas Orthopedic Hospital, Houston (Gregory Stocks) 3. Memorial Hermann Hospital (Kelly Blevins) 4. Christus St. John Hospital, Nassau Bay (Michael Monmouth) 5. Houston Physician’s Hospital, Webster (Terry Siller) |
| 3 Chicago, Illinois | 1. Evanston Hospital, Evanston (James Kudrna)
2. Franciscan St. Margaret Health – Hammond, Hammond (Upendra Patel*) 3. Elmhurst Memorial Hospital, Elmhurst (Lawrence Lieber) 4. Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital, Downers Grove (Kevin Walsh*) 5. Community Hospital, Munster (Gregory Mccomis) |
| 2 Los Angeles, California | 1. Saint John’s Health Center, Santa Monica (Andrew Yun)
2. Good Samaritan Hospital, Los Angeles (William Long) 3. Santa Monica – UCLA Medical Ctr & Orthopaedic Hospital, Santa Monica (Brad Penenberg) 4. Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles (Jason Snibbe) 5. Huntington Memorial Hospital, Pasadena (Paul Gilbert) |
| 1 New York City, New York | 1. Riverview Medical Center, Red Bank (Anthony Costa)
2. Hospital for Special Surgery, New York (Chitranjan Ranawat) 3. NYU Hospitals Center, New York (Roy Davidovitch) 4. Beth Israel Medical Center, New York (David Drucker) 5. Staten Island University Hospital, Staten Island (John Reilly*) |
