The following is a summary of “Trends in Timely Access to High-Quality and Affordable Surgical Care in the United States,” published in the November 2024 issue of Surgery by Mullens et al.    

People in the United States continue to face significant barriers to accessing surgical care, which remains a major issue impacting the ability to receive necessary treatment.  

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to quantify trends in access to timely, high-quality, and affordable surgical care in the United States.  

They used a cross-sectional approach to evaluate US surgical care access (2011-2015 and 2016-2020). Data from the American Hospital Association (AHA), Medicare claims, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) 5-Star Quality Rating System, the American Community Survey (ACS), and the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) were analyzed to measure timeliness (<60-minute drive time), quality (≥3 CMS stars for surgically capable hospitals), and affordability (neither uninsured nor underinsured).  

The results showed that Americans lacking access to timely, high-quality, and affordable surgical care increased from 97.7 million (2010-2015) to 98.7 million (2016-2020). While improvements in uninsured status were seen (38.5 million to 26.5 million), this was offset by increases in barriers due to timeliness (9.5 million to 14.1 million), quality (3.4 million to 4.9 million), and underinsured status (46.3 million to 53.1 million). People with insufficient access were more likely to be from rural areas (6.7% vs. 2.0%, P<0.001), lower-income backgrounds (40.7% vs. 30.0%, P<0.001), and of Hispanic ethnicity (35.9% vs. 15.8%, P<0.001).  

They concluded that nearly 1 in 3 Americans lack access to timely, high-quality, and affordable surgical care, with specific policy interventions required to address key access barriers.  

Source: journals.lww.com/annalsofsurgery/abstract/9900/trends_in_timely_access_to_high_quality_and.1121.aspx