ICES finds patients have lower healthcare costs with female surgeons

A study suggests patients treated by female surgeons have lower total healthcare costs than patients treated by male surgeons, across many different types of procedures. Costs for female surgeons were significantly lower at 30 days, 90 days and one year following surgery compared to those treated by male surgeons. This corresponds to a relative cost difference of 10%. Prior studies also found patients treated by female physicians have better health outcomes than those treated by male physicians, including mortality, surgical complications, reoperations and readmission to hospital after the surgery.