Zip Codes May Not be an Adequate Method to Risk Adjust for Socioeconomic Status following TJA at the Individual Surgeon Level

Increasing consumerism in healthcare has included a push towards the ranking of individual surgeons. These rankings rely on the adjustment of patient outcomes based on individual patient risk. Socioeconomic status (SES) has been identified as an important variable impacting patient outcomes following total joint arthroplasty (TJA), and patient zip code has been proposed as a proxy. Our study attempts to determine if zip code is an acceptable proxy for socioeconomic status within a single surgeon ’s practice.

Source: The Journal of Arthroplasty - October 4, 2019 Category: Orthopaedics Authors: Benjamin H. Dalkin, Luke R. Sampson, Wendy M. Novicoff, James A. Browne Source Type: research