Comparing Publicly Reported Surgical Outcomes With Quality Measures From a Statewide Improvement Collaborative.

Comparing Publicly Reported Surgical Outcomes WithQualityMeasures From a Statewide Improvement Collaborative The recent release of a Surgeon Scorecard has accelerated debatearoundthemeritsofpublicly reportingsurgicaloutcomes.1 BasedonMedicare claims from2009 through2013, this scorecard provides the public with surgeon-specific complication rates for8electiveproceduresperformedbynearly 17000surgeons. While the intent of this effort—greater transparency leading tobetteroutcomes—is laudable,manycontendthat the scorecard is misleading because it provides data for a single outcomemeasure thatmaynot correlatewellwithother quality metrics. We used data from the statewide clinical registry maintained by the Michigan Urological Surgery Improvement Collaborative (MUSIC) to evaluate this concern for one of the scorecard procedures—radical prostatectomy (RP) for prostate cancer. We specifically examined whether surgeonspecific complication rates reported in the scorecard correlate with several perioperative qualitymeasures endorsed by MUSIC urologists and patient advocates.2