Journal of the American College of Surgeons - Mortality after Elective Colon Resection: The Search for Outcomes that Define Quality in Surgical Practice (blogger's note: or any other cancer surgeries)

Blogger's Opinion: or any other cancer surgeries for those 'deemed' not qualified with this issues having been widely debated over decades but left unresolved, it would be 'enticing' to detail the moral aspects of death ratios/unqualifed surgeons/outcomes (eg. in hindsight - those patients that should have been referred, but were not)

Journal of the American College of Surgeons - Mortality after Elective Colon Resection: The Search for Outcomes that Define Quality in Surgical Practice

Conclusions

Elective colon resection is a safe procedure in both teaching hospitals and nonteaching hospitals, with an impressively homogenous mean mortality rate of 1.56% in teaching hospitals, and 1.38% in nonteaching hospitals. We reject our original hypothesis because the data do not sufficiently discriminate to permit the use of death after elective colon resection as a differentiating quality measure; however, the data do identify individual poor performers. Poor performing institutions/surgeons should seek extramural guidance to improve their outcomes or discontinue performing such operations.