• Kyle H Sheetz, Lauren Corona, Shannon Cramm, Allen Haddad, Lindsey Kolar, Dave Kozminski, Ashley Miller, Rula Mualla, Patrick Underwood, Seth A Waits, Greta Krapohl, Darrell A Campbell, and Michael J Englesbe.
• Department of Surgery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
• J. Surg. Res. 2014 Jun 15;189(2):255-61.

BackgroundThe practice of ambulatory surgery has expanded greatly as a result of advances in surgical technology and rising financial pressures. We sought to characterize the utilization of ambulatory surgical practices for common general surgical procedures in Michigan.Materials And MethodsWe identified 33,655 patients within the Michigan Surgery Quality Collaborative clinical registry undergoing general surgical procedures performed on an ambulatory basis between 25% and 75% of the time. Our primary outcome was the incidence of ambulatory surgery. Using multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression models, we adjusted ambulatory surgery utilization rates for patient comorbidities, procedure composition, and hospital characteristics. We then assessed the incidence of postoperative complications across hospitals grouped by their ambulatory surgery utilization rates.ResultsAdjusted utilization rates of ambulatory surgery varied widely across 34 hospitals from 29%-75% (mean = 54%). Risk-adjusted complication rates for ambulatory cases were similar between hospitals performing the least (2.2%) and the most ambulatory surgery (2.3%, P = 0.365). Patient factors and hospital characteristics accounted for 23.3% of the between-hospital variability in ambulatory surgery utilization, whereas most variation was explained by effects at the surgeon level.ConclusionsDespite wide variation in ambulatory surgery utilization for general surgical procedures, we were unable to explain observed differences by patient comorbidities, case mix, or hospital characteristics. These data suggest that understanding factors associated with ambulatory surgery utilization may represent a novel avenue for quality improvement within our statewide surgical collaborative.Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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