Evaluation of indications for and outcomes of elective surgery.

Background: Wide small-area variations in the rates of elective surgical procedures and lack of systematic outcome measurement have raised questions about the appropriateness of such surgery. Our objective was to determine the feasibility of routine evaluation of indications for and outcomes of elective surgery.

Methods: Participants consisted of 138 surgeons and 5313 patients who underwent 1 or more of 6 specific surgical procedures (for a total of 6274 operations).