This is the second post in a two-part series. How to Choose a Surgeon (Part 1) discussed the importance of a surgeon’s age, completion of a fellowship in joint replacement, and performing at least 150 hip replacements per year. Topics covered in this post include:
I’m not a medical professional, and I'm not offering medical advice. You should consult with a physician or other qualified medical professional for diagnosis, treatment, and advice. The content on this site is for informational purposes only.
Many sites show physician ratings: US News, HealthGrades, WebMD, ZocDoc — even Yelp and Google Reviews. Most of these sites have obvious concerns: the reviews might not be legitimate, and even when they are, they reflect the views of self-selected patients. Still, I’m a data nerd, so I built a spreadsheet of surgeons I was considering, just to see what would shake out.
Most of my candidates were affiliated with a major hospital or institution that provides patient rankings, so I included those (which I assume must be from actual patients). I also included rankings from US News, Healthgrades, WebMD, and Zocdoc. I calculated a weighted average for each candidate, combining each site’s rating with the number of reviews. Later, I added weights for “site quality” based on AI research and vibes. But they didn’t have much effect, so I dropped them.
One of my top initial prospects had horrible reviews across multiple sites and just mediocre ratings on their own. For me, that was a red flag, so I scratched them. I had plenty of other stellar candidates without that flaw, so why take the risk?
All of my remaining candidates had really strong rankings. The range was 4.73 to 4.90 on a scale of 5. Given the suspect quality of the data, the differences between candidates struck me as noise.
My final pick, the surgeon who performed my surgery, had a weighted average of 4.83.
There are awards physicians can earn, though many are just marketing gimmicks, in which doctors pay to “earn” the award. (See this ProPublica article.) But some use a more rigorous selection process, including peer surveys, and I think they probably signal genuine quality. One example is SuperDoctors, though they’re limited to a few states and metro areas. Castle Connolly Top Doctors is another, as is Newsweek’s Leading Doctors.
I don’t have evidence for this, but I think titles like Chief of Joint Replacement or Director of Arthroplasty Fellowship Program may signal high surgical skill. Personally, I’m less interested in roles like medical director or department chair, which lean more toward administration. Do your own research here, if you think the title is relevant or important.
There are two major professional organizations for hip surgeons: the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons (AAHKS). Membership in the first doesn’t signal much beyond professional affiliation. Being a Fellow Member of the second organization is more selective, requiring board certification and 50 hip/knee surgeries (combined) per year — both of which you should already be screening for. You can search for surgeons on the AAHKS website.
Surgeons operate in hospitals, so it’s worth thinking about them as well.
Newsweek and U.S. News both provide national rankings of orthopedic hospitals. Check both because they use different methodologies and can rank the same hospital quite differently. For example, at the time of writing (March 6, 2026), Keck Hospital of USC is ranked #22 nationally by Newsweek, but doesn’t make the top 50 in U.S. News. Both sites fully explain their methodologies, if you want to dig into the details.
Hospitals can earn a ton of different certifications, accreditations, and awards, but I didn’t go down that rabbit hole to investigate. Newsweek states that they incorporate relevant accreditations and certifications into their scoring model, which was sufficient for me.
Medicare’s “Care Compare” also provides hospital data, including:
The complication rate covers a 90-day period post-surgery, is restricted to elective first-time replacements, and is risk-adjusted to account for patient factors that make some surgeries riskier than others, such as age, comorbidities, and indicators of frailty. (See section 2.2.3 Risk-Adjustment Variables.)
The other two metrics — serious complications and death — cover all types of surgeries performed at the hospital, not just hip and knee replacements.
On the site, search for a hospital, then scroll to Quality > Complications & Deaths.
National norms are provided for each metric, so you can see whether the hospital is above or below average.
As an example, here are the Medicare hip/knee complication rates (retrieved March 6, 2026) for three hospitals in my area, along with a few nationally famous centers, plus the national average:
Keep in mind that a hospital’s complication rate is an aggregate measure: an individual surgeon affiliated with that hospital might have better or worse outcomes.
I gave each surgeon's hospital some weight in my decision, using both the Medicare complication rate and an average of its U.S. News and Newsweek rankings.
U.S. News does state that one-third of a hospital’s score is based on outcomes, including survival, infections, and surgical complications, but Medicare’s complication rate is specific to hip and knee replacements so I gave it independent weight.
I built an initial list of prospective surgeons by asking for recommendations from my primary care physician and other healthcare providers I trust, including surgeons in other specialties. I also scanned the websites of top orthopedic hospitals in my area, adding surgeons who looked promising.
I recorded where they went to medical school and where they completed their fellowship. I estimated their age by adding 25 to the number of years since medical school graduation. I noted any awards and added the number of Medicare-covered hip replacements they performed in the last 12 months. That got my list to a reasonable number. I then gathered rating information from various sites, as I explained earlier. Ultimately, I narrowed my list to three very strong candidates and a few solid backups, all of whom met my criteria.
All of this played out over months, because I was dragging my feet, hoping to avoid surgery. During the process of researching surgeons, I was also researching surgical approaches and hardware. One of the three candidates was eliminated because his preferred hardware didn’t match what I wanted.
At that point, I would have been happy with either of the two remaining surgeons. Let’s call them A and B. During my visit with Surgeon A, he mentioned that a relative recently had a hip replacement. I asked whether he performed the surgery himself, and he said no, that he’d referred her to another surgeon. When I asked which surgeon, he said ‘Surgeon B’ — not knowing that I was considering Surgeon B. That settled it for me: I chose Surgeon B, though I would have been totally happy with Surgeon A as well.
Admittedly, I spent a lot of time researching, gathering data, and deliberating. Some of my friends thought it was excessive. Maybe they’re right. But it’s not every day that someone opens your hip, saws off the top of your femur, and installs metal and plastic. It felt like a very important decision, and I wanted to base it on objective data as much as possible.
I hope that these two posts, along with all of the other information on this site, helps make the process easier for you.