The Quality of a Surgeon Defined by Internal Medicine and Family Practice Physicians: A Closed-Ended Survey with Importance Scale

An anonymously completed, closed-ended questionnaire with an importance scale was sent to physicians to assess which qualities were important in their selection of a surgeon. Differences in proportions of rankings that were designated “extremely important” were assessed by binomial logistic regression was used. Null hypotheses were rejected if P < 0.05. Forty-two of 61 questionnaires were returned for analysis. Differences between dependability and other characteristics were statistically significant (G = 35.62, P = 0.001). The only characteristics that were statistically significantly less likely to receive a ranking of “extremely important” were facility appearance, subspecialty fellowship, and graduation from a good residency. All other differences could have been explained by chance (P > 0.05). Surgeons’ character, equipment, and staffing of the facility were ranked extremely important, whereas training of the surgeon or the appearance of the facility was not.