How we measure
This is a trust register: we verify structural facts of trust, not treatment outcomes. Each clinic gets an open profile across 10 axes on one public ruler. No hidden scores and no hand-placed ranks — the Verified Trust Index composite is computed from published weights. We take no money from clinics, never book or refer, and every clinic has a right of reply.
The gate — who enters the register
We list a clinic if it can be identified correctly and it is operating. A missing operating-surgeon name is not grounds to exclude (Unknown ≠ fault): such a clinic is listed with a flag but does not receive a segment crown. A crown for a surgical segment is available only with a registry-verified ABPS/ABMS plastic-surgery certification, a clear-active Florida licence and the required facility registration.
- Florida-licensed physician (MQA) — the operating physician holds a clear-active Florida licence, verified in the FL DOH / MQA record with no relevant discipline
- Named accountable surgeon — a named, accountable operating surgeon or medical director — not a rotating-contractor or coordinator front
- In register scope — cosmetic / plastic surgery or medical aesthetics — within the register's scope
- Clinic operating — the clinic is genuinely operating and reachable for booking
Why these axes
Every axis passes three sieves: buyer relevance, verifiability against a public source, and robustness to confounds (brand size, celebrity, ad budget, low price).
- Buyer-relevant. The axis answers a real patient question: is the surgeon board-certified in plastic surgery, is the Florida licence clean, is the office registered and the facility accredited, do the advertising claims check out, and who is actually accountable for the procedure.
- Checkable. The value can be re-checked against a public source — the FL DOH / MQA licence verification and Practitioner Profile, the Board of Medicine discipline search, ABMS Certification Matters and ABPS Verify-a-Surgeon, the QUAD A / AAAHC / Joint Commission directories, the FL Office Surgery Registration, the clinic's own pages.
- Robust to confounds. The heavy axes do not reward fame or a low price; a small named-surgeon practice with a verified ABPS certification and a clean licence beats a large opaque, deal-priced, rotating-surgeon front.
The ten axes
Six measured (85%) and four editorial (15%). Each runs 1 to 5; the composite is normalised over the axes that apply to the clinic's scope and mapped to 0–100.
| Axis | What the axis checks | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| M1 · Operating-surgeon board certification (ABPS) | Is the operating surgeon board-certified in plastic surgery — ABPS / ABMS, confirmed in Certification Matters or ABPS Verify-a-Surgeon and in the Florida record — not a look-alike "cosmetic surgery board" nor a certification in another specialty. A verified ABPS surgeon matched to the marketed procedure is top of the scale. | 22% |
| M2 · Florida licence standing & discipline | Is the Florida licence clear-active with no relevant emergency restriction, suspension, revocation or discipline in the FL DOH / MQA and Board-of-Medicine record. This is both a positive axis and an input to the red-flag cap. | 20% |
| M3 · Facility registration & accreditation | Is the surgical office registered where required (FL Office Surgery Registration) and is facility accreditation verified at the accreditor's own directory (QUAD A / AAAHC / Joint Commission) — not just a logo on the clinic's page. Verified, never merely claimed. | 15% |
| M4 · Surgeon accountability | Is the operating clinician individually named and accountable for the procedure, or is the clinic a rotating-contractor, coordinator or brand front where the patient can't know who will operate before the sales call. | 13% |
| M5 · Advertising honesty | Do the advertising claims match the record: does a "board-certified" claim resolve to a real ABMS board, are "top / best / safest" claims supported, and are there no misleading or prohibited claims. We score the presence of the claim against the record, never the outcome. | 10% |
| M6 · Price / process candour | Is the price and planning process candid and proportionate — read together with surgeon accountability. In Miami the signal inverts: aggressive "from $X" / weekly-financing / "any credit" surgical deal pricing is a high-volume-funnel risk co-signal, not a transparency virtue, and consult-only at a named-surgeon practice is not penalised. | 5% |
| E1 · Practice-model continuity | Practice-model continuity — a stable named clinical practice, or a franchise / coordinator / high-volume front whose continuity is commercial rather than clinical. | 5% |
| E2 · Entity / rebrand continuity | Entity / rebrand continuity — does the current clinic identity map honestly to its facility address, predecessor names and public records, with no name-churn that hides an adverse record. | 5% |
| E3 · Professional corroboration | Professional corroboration — do ASPS / ASAPS / FACS memberships check out at the issuing body, verified rather than merely claimed, without substituting for the ABPS / licence checks. | 2% |
| E4 · Out-of-state / international pathway | Out-of-state / international-patient candour — clear pre-op, post-op, follow-up and travel-risk information, rather than a tourism-gloss over the medical constraints. | 3% |
How the axes are weighted
The heavy axes are buyer-predictive, checkable and little exposed to confounds: the operating surgeon's plastic-surgery board certification (22) and the Florida licence standing (20) — is the surgeon actually board-certified to hold the scalpel, and is the licence clean. Facility registration (15) and surgeon accountability (13) follow. The light ones are where a brand- or budget-proxy risk is high: advertising honesty (10), price/process (5, inverted), plus the editorial axes.
Measured axes sum to 85, editorial to 15. The Verified Trust Index = the weighted average of the axes that apply to the clinic's scope (a non-surgical med-spa is not sunk by the surgical board axis it doesn't need), mapped to 0–100. Below 85% coverage the composite is not published (insufficient verified data).
The red-flag cap
A clinic-specific, sourced structural harm caps the composite from above: an unresolved named public-record match (verification hold, max 75), a verified advertising / board-claim mismatch (max 70), a relevant disciplinary action tied to a current operator (max 60), an emergency restriction, current significant restriction or permanent-procedure ban (max 45), or a revoked / suspended licence, an unregistered required surgical office, or an entity-continuity attempt to obscure a severe record (max 30). "We couldn't confirm a licence" is never a red flag; a cap requires a clinic-specific official record, an entity-match to the live clinic, an offered right-of-reply, and negative wording reviewed before publication. Market-level facts are never pinned to a named clinic.
Reproducible by design
Each cell carries a source class (OFFICIAL / SECONDARY / UNVERIFIED) and a date. A score without a source is impossible: "not found" is an empty value with text, not a guess. Any external auditor can repeat the check against the same public sources. We accept edits from clinics only with a source link; we show the clinic's reply alongside, but we don't change the score without a source.