Surgeon's Scorecard website

Grinder

Here is the website that lists the records of complications/death during surgery by hospitals and doctors.

https://projects.propublica.org/surgeons/

You put in your location, then click from the drop down menu your procedure, in this case "Prostate Removal", it then sends you to the page where a rating system by color shows how many complications for a particular surgeon/hospital. Of course, its unlikely that any record will be perfect, but it will steer you toward the more successful and experienced personnel. It also shows how experienced they are by  the number of procedures they have done.

I did not use this site to find a particular surgeon, but to make sure anyone involved in my operation did not have a poor and consistent record of complications. I think that is the intended use of this website.

I know you can't really rely on word of mouth from personnel associated with any hospital or surgeon, because they always use glowing terms in every instance. But this site, if what they say is true, will give you the hard facts if any particular surgeon or hospital lags far behind their peers.

Again, I am not suggesting using this website to pick a surgeon/hospital, but to make sure your surgeon/hospital does not have an extremely high occurrence of complications/deaths compared to others in your location.

Also, I just assume this information is accurate. I cannot vouch for how they accumulate the information, I can only say it should be used IN MY OPINION, not as medical advice.

My surgeon did not have the best record, but he had a good record, and he was excellent in nerve sparing and removing my prostate with the DaVince robotic surgery. My prosate was 250cc, ten times the normal size of 25cc, and it was the opinion of other urologists/doctors it would be difficult to remove with DaVinci, but Dr. F****** and his crew did a marvelous job. My recovery has only been slightly behind normal, and the difference in quality of life is remarkable. I am grateful to God we have this technology, and grateful we have expert surgeons able to use it. My enormous prostate was plagued with BPH, a recurring staph infection prostatitis, and cancerous as well. I had four visits to the emergency room last spring. In one instance, an infected and bleeding Foley had to be removed, and in another, personnel tried to reinsert, unsuccessfully, another Foley into an infected, bleeding urethra and a prostate the size of Jupiter. And lots and lots of flomax and cialis just to keep the urethra open slightly. I wince at the memory of the last year. The cipro wasn't working that well, the saw palmetto didnt do anything, and changes and manipulation of diet didnt help. I was a vegan anyway back then, and that didn't help. I have always had some luck with naturopathic remedies, but in this case, nada.

So if anybody reading this is fearful of their future because of recurring prostatitis, or BPH out of control, or PSA over 10, or PC, take heart... if it gets too bad, like mine eventually did, you can get it removed safely. Just don't wait too long, My neighbor, a really good guy, always friendly and helpful, died of PC... but before he passed, he warned everyone to keep a close eye on prostate health. And don't be afraid of the Davinci operation, the biopsy, everyone will tell you, is much much worse. If you get through that, the Davinci is a piece of cake.

Keep the faith, brothers.