Photo Credit: Dragos Condrea
The following is a summary of “National Trends and Costs of Same Day Discharge in Patients Undergoing Elective Minimally Invasive Colectomy,” published in the October 2024 issue of Surgery by Rafaqat et al.
Enhanced Recovery Pathways (ERPs) enable safe same-day discharge (SDD) for selecting patients after elective minimally invasive colectomy procedures.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study analyzing the financial impact of SDD after elective minimally invasive colectomy.
They analyzed the Nationwide Readmission Database (2016-2019) to include patients with a hospital length of stay ≤ 2 days following minimally invasive elective colectomy. Propensity score matching was used to compare patients discharged on the day of the operation to those discharged on postoperative day 1 or 2. The primary outcome measured was the combined cost of hospitalization and readmission.
The results showed that patients in SDD had lower comorbidity (33% vs. 21%) and illness severity (79% vs. 63%), a higher proportion of Medicare insurance (44% vs. 38%), and more benign neoplasms (52% vs. 17%). Most patients in SDD underwent right colectomy (89%). Across 647 matched pairs, total cost was significantly lower ($8,000 vs $12,900; P<0.001) due to cheaper index hospitalizations. No differences in readmission rates or associated costs were noted.
They concluded that SDD after elective minimally invasive colectomy can reduce hospitalization costs and may be cost-effective for healthier patients.
Source: americanjournalofsurgery.com/article/S0002-9610(24)00573-7/abstract
