Nicholas et al have produced a provocative study on the relationship between a hospital's surgical outcomes, as measured by mortality rate and major complications, and its compliance with publicly reported quality process measures of the CMS SCIP. They found essentially no relationship with how well a hospital performs on its SCIP measures, as reported on the Hospital Compare Web site, and the associated complication rates for 6 major surgical procedures. The findings of this report are noteworthy because they come from the outcomes measurement laboratory of John D. Birkmeyer, MD, a national leader in research on surgical outcomes and use of the administrative database.