Find the Most Experienced Surgeons

Look for a surgeon who performs a high volume of the specific procedure you need. Research shows that surgeons who perform 50+ joint replacements per year have significantly better patient outcomes. Check their hospital affiliations, read patient reviews, and verify their board certification. OrthoProcedures makes this easier by ranking surgeons by verified Medicare procedure volume, so you can quickly identify the most experienced specialists in your area.

Procedure volume is the number of times a surgeon has performed a specific operation. Multiple peer-reviewed studies in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery and JAMA have shown that high-volume surgeons (100+ procedures per year) achieve up to 50% lower complication rates, fewer revision surgeries, and shorter hospital stays. The volumes shown on OrthoProcedures represent Medicare Part B claims, which capture approximately one-third of all joint replacements performed nationally.

Yes. All data comes directly from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency that administers Medicare. We use the most recent annual release of Medicare Part B Provider Utilization data. CMS data is published with an 18-month lag, so the current dataset is the most recent available. Each surgeon is verified by their National Provider Identifier (NPI), ensuring data accuracy.

Volume is one important factor, but not the only one. Consider the surgeon’s experience with your specific procedure (hip, knee, or shoulder), their hospital’s quality ratings, location and convenience, patient reviews, and your personal comfort level during the consultation. OrthoProcedures provides hospital quality data, CMS star ratings, and complication rates alongside volume data to help you make a well-rounded decision.

OrthoProcedures covers the three most common joint replacement procedures: total hip arthroplasty (hip replacement), total knee arthroplasty (knee replacement), and total shoulder arthroplasty (shoulder replacement). These are tracked using specific CPT procedure codes in the Medicare billing data. Together, these three procedures account for over 1.5 million surgeries performed annually in the United States.