Identification of the “Prone-To-Complaints” [PTC] cosmetic surgeons of California

Biro, Jan C (2025) Identification of the “Prone-To-Complaints” [PTC] cosmetic surgeons of California. International Journal of Science and Research Archive, 14 (2). pp. 980-998. ISSN 2582-8185

We wish to introduce a method to identify cosmetic surgeons who were involved in unusually large number of serious conflicts with their consumers (traditionally called patients) and were the subject of serious criticism (complaints). The method is based on the collection and publication of the surgeons’ court history (publicly available data, lawsuits for alleged “medical malpractice”). This pilot study involved accessing the court files of 1440 licensed cosmetic/plastic surgeons in California (40% of total 3572 specialists) and identified 2414 medical malpractice records (i.e. 1.7 lawsuits/surgeon in average). As few as 25 licensees had more than 10 malpractice records, and they (1.7%) were responsible for 17% of the lawsuits against cosmetic surgeons. However 43% of doctors had no court complaints at all. Correcting the court data with the number of years the physicians had after graduation (PGY) or after licensing (PLY) we could predict the number of lawsuits which might be expected at the end of their medical carrier and we predicted that 36 additional persons (2.5%) might be expected to have more than 10 malpractice lawsuits. Eighty six persons in this study (5.9%) had already been the subject of some form of disciplinary actions by the Medical Board of California (MBC). The official MBC records added 72 (5.0%) more licensee to our observation list of controversial cosmetic surgeons. Noticeably, the number of disciplinary actions (remarks) by the MBC is generally less than 5% for doctors working in 6 major medical specialty (anesthesiology, surgery, medicine, gynecology, pediatric and psychology), however it is more than 6% for physicians in plastic surgery and facial reconstructive surgery and it riches to 12-18% (i. e. 2-3 times the average) for those licensed in cosmetic surgery as subspecialty. The court records and the disciplinary actions altogether identified 133 licensees – 9.2% of all licensed cosmetic/plastic surgeons in CA - as “Prone-to-Complaints” (PTC) providers of cosmetic surgery services, there 97 (6.7%) are manifest, while 36 (2.5%) are potential PTC doctors. These 3 categories of manifest and “developing” PTC doctors are responsible for 859 court complaints today (35% of total) and the prognosis suggests that they will increase the total court-complaint-burden of the cosmetic/plastic surgery by 54 % in ~ 15 years. Consequently some form of restrains (by colleagues, law-enforcement and consumers) on these PTC surgical-artisans should certainly and dramatically improve consumer satisfaction (including medical safety) and clean up the controversies around “beauty-doctors”. Publication of this information on the internet - as a comprehensive, interactive database - might significantly help the potential cosmetic surgery clients in their successful orientation between misleading, marketing ‘excesses’ and real professional honesty of cosmetic surgery service providers and avoid unnecessary complications (simply by being informed and avoiding these controversial, PTC actors).