CL08: INDIVIDUALIZED SURGEON REPORT CARDS TO ADDRESS RACIAL DISPARITIES
Jennifer H Fieber, MD, Chris Wirtalla, BA, Rachel Kelz, MD, MSCE, FACS; University of Pennsylvania

Background: Increased awareness about racial disparities garners support for change. We performed a feasibility study to create individualized surgeon report cards to improve racial disparities through personalization.

Methods: We randomly selected six surgeons from three different institutions in a metropolitan city with no racial minority that had >75 inpatient cases from 2012-2013 using the PHC4 database. Single page report cards were created that included case volume, racial breakdown, type of cases, and complications. A benchmark for performance was provided.

Results: We successfully formatted six individualized report cards. Surgeon volume ranged from 193 to 624 cases ( PHC4 average 168 cases) including 10 to 250 emergent cases (PHC4 average 62 emergent cases). Surgeons treated 9.7 to 42.6% Black patients (PHC4 average 30.4% Black patients). Overall complication rates were 5.2 to 24.7% (PHC4 average 14.6%). Complication rates in Black patients were 3.8 to 31.3% (PHC4 average 16.1%). Pulmonary complications were the most common complication for all surgeons.

Conclusions: Report cards provide a unique format for presenting surgeons with personalized data pertaining to race in their practice. Future directions focus on optimizing and distributing these report cards to evaluate potential impact on practice patterns and provider awareness.