Stephen David, MD of Blue Ridge Bone and Joint, scored as best spinal surgeon, achieving the lowest rate of surgical complications of any neurosurgeon or orthopedic spinal surgeon at Mission Hospital and the rest of Western North Carolina.

Guided by experts, ProPublica calculated and compared complication rates for surgeons performing one of eight elective procedures over a 3 year period from the Medicare database, and released this information to the public in 2015.

Please visit https://projects.propublica.org/surgeons/ to learn more.

ProPublica data shows that when it comes to elective operations, it is much more important to pick the right surgeon, rather than selecting a particular hospital or health system.