Variability in General Surgical Procedures in Rural and Urban U.S. Hospital Inpatient Settings.

摘要

We conducted a cross-sectional study of a probability sample of hospital patients undergoing 367,438 general surgery inpatient procedures in rural and urban hospitals in 24 states, as recorded in the 2005 National Inpatient Sample. The main outcome measures included: (1) the frequency of inpatient general surgical procedures performed; (2) the frequency of other inpatient surgical procedures performed; (3) serious complications occurring during the hospitalization; and (4) predicted resource demand, length of stay, and mortality.