Ghost of a Chance begins with a man undergoing heart surgery and then dying shortly after the procedure is completed. His family doesn't understand what went wrong and requests an autopsy from the Los Angeles coroner's office which Quincy (Jack Klugman) performs. During his investigation, Quincy learns that the renowned surgeon (Jose Ferrer) that was scheduled to conduct the operation was called away for another patient and a less experienced surgeon (Jonathan Frakes) acted in his place, a substitution known as a "ghost surgery". Quincy becomes very concerned by this practice and confronts the doctors and hospital where this has been taking place.
My initial reaction to this episode was that it is a recycled plot with similarities to previous episodes, one in particular being the Season 5 episode Cover-Up where an inexperienced doctor was substituting for another in an emergency care setting. In that episode we also saw a nurse acting as a whistleblower which is the exact same thing that happens in this story. For this reason and the fact that there is no crime whatsoever and very little mystery, this episode loses points in my book and makes it below average. While there are no gaping plot holes or anything actually wrong with it, it just isn't very original or interesting.
Overall this is a pretty disappointing second episode of Season 8 which features a recycled plot along with no crime or mystery and not one that I would recommend viewing.