A friend of mine is probably going to need surgery. He asked me to look into the surgeon who was recommending the surgery to him. Here is what I did for my friend. You should do the same thing whenever surgery is recommended to you.
If it is significant surgery, get a second opinion. Remember that surgeons earn income when they operate on you. Different surgeons may have different opinions about the need for surgery or what the best surgical approach might be. Don’t just rely on the first opinion you receive.
After recommending he get a second opinion, I went to the web site of the Arizona Medical Board, since his surgeon was a medical doctor (M.D.). Every medical doctor who is licensed in Arizona is under its jurisdiction. There are separate boards for other medical practitioners, such as doctors of osteopathy (D.O.), podiatrists (D.P.M.) and chiropractors (D.C.). If your case involves one of them, go to their board’s site for information.
The Arizona Medical Board has more information about the doctors it licenses than do the other boards about their doctors. The Arizona Medical Board has a look up page where you can enter your doctor’s name and see their educational credentials, how long they have been licensed, and whether they have been the subject of any recent board discipline. Here is the link to the doctor search page of the Arizona Medical Board. In my friend’s case, his doctor was educated at a good medical school and attended a good residency program. He had not been the subject of any board discipline in the last 5 years, which is all the further back the board information goes. So far, so good. The next step was to determine if he was board certified.
Board Certification is an extra credential available to M.D.’s and D.O.’s. It is not a requirement to get a medical license, but it indicates a higher level of qualifications. The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) is the umbrella organization for the various specialty boards that offer board certification. There are 24 member boards, which certify physicians in 40 specialty areas and 89 subspecialty areas. In order to be board certified, a doctor must apply, demonstrate he or she meets the educational requirements of the board, has the level of experience in practice the board requires, and pass a test. The test will always have a written component and may also have an oral component. Certification is for a period of years, after which the doctor must apply for recertification.
I went to the American Board of Surgery to look for his surgeon. I put in the surgeon’s name and the state in which he practices (Arizona) and hit enter. The board could not find him, which means he is not board certified. He appears to be a good doctor, but not one who is board certified. My friend will have to decide whether to choose a surgeon who is board certified or to stick with his current doctor. For my part, I would prefer a board certified surgeon, although even board certified physicians make mistakes. God knows I have sued a lot of board certified doctors over the years.
The next step is a very important one. Find out how often your surgeon performs the surgery you are going to have. The statistical evidence is overwhelming on this point. Surgeons who do an operation over and over many times a week get better outcomes than surgeons who perform the operation less frequently. The best surgeon in the world who does your surgery only a few times a year is going to have a hard time getting as good an outcome as an average surgeon who does the surgery 5 or 6 times a week. Remember also that it is not just the surgeon in the operating room with you. The surgeon is part of a surgical team, the most important part, of course, but still just a part. If the surgeon does the operation many times a week, each member of her team will know her job and should be able to do it smoothly and efficiently. You want a sharp, experienced team in the operating room with you.
The final step is to ask where the surgery is to be performed. Unless it is a pretty simple surgery, you are going to be in the hospital for at least one night and you are definitely going to be in the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU). Some hospitals do much better than others when it comes to caring for patients and sending them home without complications. Medicare has a great deal of data about hospitals and rates them on a number of criteria. Go to Medicare.gov and check out the hospital your surgeon intends to use.
Once you have taken these steps, you will have given yourself the best chance to get a successful outcome for your surgery. Good luck.
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