Macroeconomic trends and practice models impacting acute care surgery

Value in acute care surgery, Part 1: Methods of quantifying cost

BACKGROUND

With health care expenditures continuing to increase rapidly, the need to understand and provide value has become more important than ever. In order to determine the value of care, the ability to accurately measure cost is essential. The acute care surgeon leader is an integral part of driving improvement by engaging in value increasing discussions. Different approaches to quantifying cost exist depending on the purpose of the analysis and available resources. Cost analysis methods range from detailed microcosting and time-driven activity-based costing to less complex gross and expenditure-based approaches. An overview of these methods and a practical approach to costing based on the needs of the acute care surgeon leader is presented.

Validation of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma grading system for acute appendicitis severity

OBJECTIVE

The American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST) developed an anatomic grading system to assess disease severity through increasing grades of inflammation. Severity grading can then be utilized in risk-adjustment and stratification of patient outcomes for clinical benchmarking. We sought to validate the AAST appendicitis grading system by examining the ability of AAST grade to predict clinical outcomes used for clinical benchmarking.

METHODS

Surgical quality program data were prospectively collected on all adult patients undergoing appendectomy for acute appendicitis at our institution between December 2013 and May 2018. The AAST acute appendicitis grade from 1 to 5 was assigned for all patients undergoing open or laparoscopic appendectomy. Primary outcomes were occurrence of major complications, any complications, and index hospitalization length of stay. Multivariable models were constructed for each outcome without and with inclusion of the AAST grade as an ordinal variable. We also developed models using International Classification of Diseases, 9th or 10th Rev.-Clinical Modification codes to determine presence of perforation for comparison.

RESULTS

A total of 734 patients underwent appendectomy for acute appendicitis. The AAST score distribution included 561 (76%) in grade 1, 49 (6.7%) in grade 2, 79 (10.8%) in grade 3, 33 (4.5%) in grade 4, and 12 (1.6%) in grade 5. The mean age was 35.3 ± 14.7 years, 47% were female, 20% were nonwhite, and 69% had private insurance. Major complications, any complications, and hospital length of stay were all positively associated with AAST grade (p < 0.05). Risk-adjustment model fit improved after including AAST grade in the major complications, any complications, and length of stay multivariable regression models. The AAST grade was a better predictor than perforation status derived from diagnosis codes for all primary outcomes studied.

CONCLUSION

Increasing AAST grade is associated with higher complication rates and longer length of stay in patients with acute appendicitis. The AAST grade can be prospectively collected and improves risk-adjusted modeling of appendicitis outcomes.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Prospective/Epidemiologic, Level III.

Barriers to improving health care value in emergency general surgery: A nationwide analysis

INTRODUCTION

There is a growing need to improve the quality of care while decreasing health care costs in emergency general surgery (EGS). Health care value includes costs and quality and is a targeted metric by improvement programs. The aim of our study was to evaluate the trend of health care value in EGS over time and to identify barriers to high-value surgical care.

METHODS

The (2012-2015) National Readmission Database was queried for patients 18 years or older who underwent an EGS procedure (according to the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma definition). Health care value (V = quality metrics/cost) was calculated from the rates of freedom from readmission, major complications, reoperation, and failure to rescue (FTR) indexed over inflation-adjusted hospital costs. Outcomes were the trends in the quality metrics: 6-month readmission, major complications, reoperation, FTR, hospital costs, and health care value over the study period. Multivariable linear regression was performed to determine the predictors of lower health care value.

RESULTS

We identified 887,013 patients who underwent EGS. Mean ± SD age was 51 ± 20 years, and 53% were male. The rates of 6-month readmission, major complications, reoperation, and FTR increased significantly over the study period. The median hospital costs also increased over the study period (2012, US $9,600 to 2015, US $13,000; p < 0.01). However, the health care value has decreased over the study period (2012, 0.35; 2013, 0.30; 2014, 0.28; 2015, 0.25; p < 0.01). Predictors of decreased health care value in EGS are age 65 years or older (β = -0.568 [-0.689 to -0.418], more than three comorbidities (β = -0.292 [-0.359 to -0.21]), readmission to a different hospital (β = -0.755 [-0.914 to -0.558]), admission to low volume centers (β = -0.927 [-1.126 to -0.682]), lack of rehabilitation (β = -0.004 [-0.005 to -0.003]), and admission on a weekend (β = -0.318 [-0.366 to -0.254]).

CONCLUSION

Health care value in EGS appears to be declining over time. Some of the factors leading to decreased health care value in EGS are potentially modifiable. Health care value could potentially be improved by reducing fragmentation of care and promoting regionalization.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Economic, level IV.

Thoracolaparoscopic management of a traumatic subacute transdiaphragmatic intercostal hernia. Second case reported

Background

Transdiaphragmatic intercostal hernias are extremely rare. Their physiopathology is different from traumatic diaphragmatic ruptures, and their clinical presentation and management strategies place them in a different category than abdominal intercostal hernias.

Case presentation

A 56 yo female presented to the outpatient trauma clinic with a symptomatic, subacute left sided transdiaphragmatic intercostal hernia secondary to a motor vehicle crash almost 3 months prior to presentation. The injury was managed with a combined thoracoscopic and laparoscopic approach, only the second time ever this has been reported. She was discharged on POD#3, and after 6 months of follow up continues to do well, without clinical evidence of hernia recurrence.

Conclusion

Minimally invasive management of this rare pathology is possible and should be encouraged.

Strategies aimed at preventing chronic opioid use in trauma and acute care surgery: a scoping review protocol

INTRODUCTION

Globally every year, millions of patients sustain traumatic injuries and require acute care surgeries. A high incidence of chronic opioid use (up to 58%) has been documented in these populations with significant negative individual and societal impacts. Despite the importance of this public health issue, optimal strategies to limit the chronic use of opioids after trauma and acute care surgery are not clear. We aim to identify existing strategies to prevent chronic opioid use in these populations.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

We will perform a scoping review of peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed literature to identify studies, reviews, recommendations and guidelines on strategies aimed at preventing chronic opioid use in patients after trauma and acute care surgery. We will search MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINHAL, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Web of Science, ProQuest and websites of trauma and acute care surgery, pain, government and professional organisations. Databases will be searched for papers published from 1 January 2005 to a maximum of 6 months before submission of the final manuscript. Two reviewers will independently evaluate studies for eligibility and extract data from included studies using a standardised data abstraction form. Preventive strategies will be classified according to their types and targeted trauma populations and acute care surgery procedures.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

Research ethics approval is not required as this study is based on the secondary use of published data. This work will inform research and clinical stakeholders on the required next steps towards the uptake of effective strategies aimed at preventing chronic opioid use in trauma and acute care surgery patients.

Benchmarking the value of care: Variability in hospital costs for common operations and its association with procedure volume

BACKGROUND

Efforts to improve health care value (quality/cost) have become a priority in the United States. Although many seek to increase quality by reducing variability in adverse outcomes, less is known about variability in costs. In conjunction with the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma Healthcare Economics Committee, the objective of this study was to examine the extent of variability in total hospital costs for two common procedures: laparoscopic appendectomy (LA) and laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC).

METHODS

Nationally weighted data for adults 18 years and older was obtained for patients undergoing each operation in the 2014 and 2016 National Inpatient Sample. Data were aggregated at the hospital-level to attain hospital-specific median index hospital costs in 2019 US dollars and corresponding annual procedure volumes. Cost variation was assessed using caterpillar plots and risk-standardized observed/expected cost ratios. Correlation analysis, variance decomposition, and regression analysis explored costs' association with volume.

RESULTS

In 2016, 1,563 hospitals representing 86,170 LA and 2,276 hospitals representing 230,120 LC met the inclusion criteria. In 2014, the numbers were similar (1,602 and 2,259 hospitals). Compared with a mean of US $10,202, LA median costs ranged from US $2,850 to US $33,381. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy median costs ranged from US $4,406 to US $40,585 with a mean of US $12,567. Differences in cost strongly associated with procedure volume. Volume accounted for 9.9% (LA) and 12.4% (LC) of variation between hospitals, after controlling for the influence of other hospital (8.2% and 5.0%) and patient (6.3% and 3.7%) characteristics and in-hospital complications (0.8% and 0.4%). Counterfactual modeling suggests that were all hospitals to have performed at or below their expected median cost, one would see a national cost savings of greater than US $301.9 million per year (95% confidence interval, US $280.6-325.5 million).

CONCLUSION

Marked variability of median hospital costs for common operations exists. Differences remained consistent across changing coding structures and database years and were strongly associated with volume. Taken together, the findings suggest room for improvement in emergency general surgery and a need to address large discrepancies in an often-overlooked aspect of value.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Epidemiological, level III.