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Background: Emergency general surgery (EGS) diseases are time-sensitive conditions that require urgent surgical evaluation, yet the effect of geographic access to care on outcomes remains unclear. We examined the association of spatial access with outcomes for common EGS conditions., Methods: A retrospective analysis of twelve 2014 State Inpatient Databases, identifying adults admitted with eight EGS conditions, was performed. We assessed spatial access using the spatial access ratio (SPAR)-an advanced spatial model that accounts for travel distance, hospital capacity, and population demand, normalized against the national mean. Multivariable regression models adjusting for patient and hospital factors were used to evaluate the association between SPAR with (a) in-hospital mortality and (b) major morbidity., Results: A total of 877,928 admissions, of which 104,332 (2.4%) were in the lowest-access category (SPAR, 0) and 578,947 (66%) were in the high-access category (SPAR, ≥1), were analyzed. Low-access patients were more likely to be White, male, and treated in nonteaching hospitals. Low-access patients also had higher incidence of complex EGS disease (low access, 31% vs. high access, 12%; p < 0.001) and in-hospital mortality (4.4% vs. 2.5%, p < 0.05). When adjusted for confounding factors, including presence of advanced hospital resources, increasing spatial access was protective against in-hospital mortality (adjusted odds ratio, 0.95; 95% confidence interval, 0.94-0.97; p < 0.001). Spatial access was not significantly associated with major morbidity., Conclusion: This is the first study to demonstrate that geospatial access to surgical care is associated with incidence of complex EGS disease and that increasing spatial access to care is independently associated with lower in-hospital mortality. These results support the consideration of spatial access in the development of regional health systems for EGS care., Level of Evidence: Prognostic and Epidemiologic; Level III., (Copyright © 2022 American Association for the Surgery of Trauma.)

Importance: Care fragmentation at time of readmission after emergency general surgery (EGS) is associated with high mortality; however, the factors underlying this finding remain unclear., Objective: To identify patient and hospital factors associated with increased mortality among patients after EGS readmitted within 30 days of discharge to a nonindex hospital., Design, Setting, and Participants: Retrospective cohort study using the 2014 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Nationwide Readmissions Database. Participants were all adult patients (18 years or older) who underwent 1 of the 15 most common EGS procedures in the United States from January 1 to November 30, 2014, and survived to discharge. The dates of analysis were October through December 2019., Exposures: Thirty-day readmission to a hospital other than that of the index surgical procedure. The study examined the association of interventions during readmission, change in hospital resource level, and severity of patient illness during readmission., Main Outcomes and Measures: Ninety-day inpatient mortality., Results: In total, 71 944 patients who underwent EGS (mean [SD] age, 59.0 [18.3] years; 53.5% [38 487 of 71 944] female) were readmitted within 30 days of discharge, of whom 10 495 (14.6%) were readmitted to a nonindex hospital. Compared with patients readmitted to index hospitals, patients readmitted to nonindex hospitals were more likely to be readmitted to hospitals with low annual EGS volume (33.5% vs 25.6%, P < .001) and be in the top half of illness severity profile (37.2% vs 31.2%, P < .001). Overall 90-day mortality was higher in the patients readmitted to nonindex hospitals (6.1% vs 4.3%, P < .001). When adjusted for baseline patient and hospital characteristics, care fragmentation was independently associated with increased mortality (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.36; 95% CI, 1.17-1.58; P < .001). After adjustment for interventions performed during readmission, change in EGS hospital volume level, and severity of patient illness, care fragmentation was no longer independently associated with mortality (aOR, 1.05; 95% CI, 0.88-1.26; P = .58). In this complete model, severity of illness was the strongest risk factor of mortality during readmission., Conclusions and Relevance: In this cohort study of adult patients who require rehospitalization after EGS, 14.6% are readmitted to a hospital other than where the index procedure was performed. Although the overall mortality rate is higher for this population, the excess mortality appears to be primarily associated with severity of patient illness at time of readmission. These data underscore the need to develop systems of care to rapidly triage patients to hospitals best equipped to manage their condition.

Background: It is unknown whether replacing clinic follow-up visits with telephone follow-up for low-risk core emergency general surgery (cEGS) procedures is safe. We measured the efficacy of telephone follow-up to determine if it could safely reduce the need for routine postoperative clinic visits in this population., Study Design: Low-risk nonelective laparoscopic appendectomy, laparoscopic cholecystectomy, umbilical hernia, and inguinal hernia repair patients received telephone follow-up for symptoms concerning for surgical complication within 10 days of discharge. Clinic appointments were made if critical thresholds were reached. Outcomes of interest included rates of completed telephone screens, clinic visits avoided, and missed complications at 30 days postoperatively., Results: Of 402 patients screened, 62 (15.4%) were scheduled for a clinic visit due to threshold responses and 27 (6.7%) were scheduled per patient request, while 275 (68.4%) patients screened negative and did not attend a clinic visit. One hundred sixty-three (59.3%) of the negative screen cohort were contacted after 30 days. Nine (5.5%) patients in this cohort were diagnosed with low-grade complications; no high-grade (Clavien-Dindo ≥ 3) complications were missed by telephone screening. Twenty surgery-related complications were identified in the full patient population; early telephone screening successfully identified the single high-grade complication., Conclusions: Post-discharge telephone follow-up in cEGS patients reduced the need for clinic follow-up visits by 68%. Missed complications were infrequent and low grade; telephone screening identified the single high-grade complication. Telephone follow-up for low-risk EGS patients is safe and increases efficiency of postoperative resource use., (Copyright © 2019 American College of Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)