I have found a surgeon who communicates well, and who anecdotally has a good reputation. But good hands are a higher priority than social skills. Googling just takes me to anecdotal review sites that I think are fairly meaningless. Is there any way to find hard data on a surgeon’s track record - how many of each type of operation he has done; complication and infection rates compared to national averages?
It’s certainly not perfect, but ProPublica has a surgeon scorecard website that tracks complication rates and lists number of procedures performed.
I would not hesitate to ask a prospective surgeon for this information as well.