A National Comparison of Operative Outcomes of New and Experienced Surgeons

Objective: To determine whether outcomes achieved by new surgeons are attributable to inexperience or to differences in the context in which care is delivered and patient complexity. Background: Although prior studies suggest that new surgeon outcomes are worse than those of experienced surgeons, factors that underlie these phenomena are poorly understood. Methods: A nationwide observational tapered matching study of outcomes of Medicare patients treated by new and experienced surgeons in 1221 US hospitals (2009–2013). The primary outcome studied is 30-day mortality. Secondary outcomes were examined. Results: In total, 694,165 patients treated by 8503 experienced surgeons were matched to 68,036 patients treated by 2119 new surgeons working in the same hospitals. New surgeons’ patients were older (25.8% aged ≥85 vs 16.3%,P
Source: Annals of Surgery - Category: Surgery Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLES Source Type: research
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