Choosing a surgeon can be daunting, but a new online database offers medical consumers data about doctors' complication rates.

The non-profit news outlet ProPublica used five years of Medicare records for elective procedures — including knee replacements, neck fusions, and gallbladder removals — to craft the unique "surgeon scorecard," NBC News reports.

The ProPublica analysis shows that the average complication rate was between 2 percent and 4 percent, but some doctors had complications in more than one in 10 surgeries.

Marshall Allen, a ProPublica reporter who worked on the project, said more information is better for patients.

"The numbers are part of the story," he said. "Really, this is a starting point for patients to talk to their docs, talk to their hospitals about these complications."