BACKGROUND: Postoperative complications are a significant source of morbidity and mortality. There are limited studies, however, assessing the impact of common postoperative complications on health care resource utilization. OBJECTIVE: To assess the association of clinically important postoperative complications with total hospital costs and length of stay (LOS) in patients undergoing noncardiac surgery. METHODS: We determined total hospital costs and LOS in all patients admitted to a single tertiary care center between July 1, 1996 and March 31, 1998 using a detailed administrative hospital discharge database. Total hospital costs and LOS were adjusted for preoperative and surgical characteristics. RESULTS: Of 7,457 patients who underwent noncardiac surgery, 6.9% developed at least 1 of the postoperative complications. These complications increased hospital costs by 78% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 68% to 90%) and LOS by 114% (95% CI: 100% to 130%) after adjustment for patient preoperative and surgical characteristics. Postoperative pneumonia was the most common complication (3%) and was associated with a 55% increase in hospital costs (95% CI: 42% to 69%) and an 89% increase in LOS (95% CI: 70% to 109%). CONCLUSIONS: Postoperative complications consume considerable health care resources. Initiatives targeting prevention of these events could significantly reduce overall costs of care and improve patient quality of care.
BACKGROUND: Postoperative complications are a significant source of morbidity and mortality. There are limited studies, however, assessing the impact of common postoperative complications on health care resource utilization. OBJECTIVE: To assess the association of clinically important postoperative complications with total hospital costs and length of stay (LOS) in patients undergoing noncardiac surgery. METHODS: We determined total hospital costs and LOS in all patients admitted to a single tertiary care center between July 1, 1996 and March 31, 1998 using a detailed administrative hospital discharge database. Total hospital costs and LOS were adjusted for preoperative and surgical characteristics. RESULTS: Of 7,457 patients who underwent noncardiac surgery, 6.9% developed at least 1 of the postoperative complications. These complications increased hospital costs by 78% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 68% to 90%) and LOS by 114% (95% CI: 100% to 130%) after adjustment for patient preoperative and surgical characteristics. Postoperative pneumonia was the most common complication (3%) and was associated with a 55% increase in hospital costs (95% CI: 42% to 69%) and an 89% increase in LOS (95% CI: 70% to 109%). CONCLUSIONS: Postoperative complications consume considerable health care resources. Initiatives targeting prevention of these events could significantly reduce overall costs of care and improve patient quality of care.
Authors: E P McCarthy; L I Iezzoni; R B Davis; R H Palmer; M Cahalane; M B Hamel; K Mukamal; R S Phillips; D T Davies Journal: Med Care Date: 2000-08 Impact factor: 2.983
Authors: S N Weingart; L I Iezzoni; R B Davis; R H Palmer; M Cahalane; M B Hamel; K Mukamal; R S Phillips; D T Davies; N J Banks Journal: Med Care Date: 2000-08 Impact factor: 2.983
Authors: Justin B Dimick; Steven L Chen; Paul A Taheri; William G Henderson; Shukri F Khuri; Darrell A Campbell Journal: J Am Coll Surg Date: 2004-10 Impact factor: 6.113
Authors: Jan Schmitges; Quoc-Dien Trinh; Marco Bianchi; Maxine Sun; Firas Abdollah; Sascha A Ahyai; Claudio Jeldres; Thomas Steuber; Paul Perrotte; Shahrokh F Shariat; Mani Menon; Francesco Montorsi; Markus Graefen; Pierre I Karakiewicz Journal: Int Urol Nephrol Date: 2011-12-13 Impact factor: 2.370
Authors: Zhen Hu; Genevieve B Melton; Nathan D Moeller; Elliot G Arsoniadis; Yan Wang; Mary R Kwaan; Eric H Jensen; Gyorgy J Simon Journal: AMIA Annu Symp Proc Date: 2017-02-10
Authors: Rachel M Owen; Sebastian D Perez; Nathan Lytle; Ankit Patel; S S Davis; Edward Lin; John F Sweeney Journal: Surg Endosc Date: 2013-04-13 Impact factor: 4.584
Authors: Rachel-Rose Cohen; Sandhya A Lagoo-Deenadayalan; Mitchell T Heflin; Richard Sloane; Irvin Eisen; Julie M Thacker; Heather E Whitson Journal: J Am Geriatr Soc Date: 2012-08-20 Impact factor: 5.562