Comparisons of the surgical outcomes and medical costs between transferred and directly admitted patients diagnosed with intestinal obstruction in an American tertiary referral center

Purpose Intestinal obstruction is a leading cause of patient mortality and the most common reason for emergent operation in colorectal surgery. The influence of inter-hospital transfer on patients’ outcomes varies greatly in different diseases. We aimed to compare the surgical outcomes and medical costs between transferred and directly admitted patients diagnosed with intestinal obstruction in an American tertiary referral center. Methods All intestinal obstruction patients operated in Cleveland Clinic from Jan 2012 to Dec 2016 were collected from a prospectively maintained database. Preoperative characteristics; surgical outcomes, including intraoperative complication, postoperative complication, readmission, reoperation, and postoperative 30-day mortality; and medical cost were collected. All parameters were compared between two groups before and after propensity score match. Multivariate logistic analysis was used to explore risk factors of surgical outcomes. Results A total of 576 patients were included, with 75 in the transferred group and 501 in the directly admitted group. Before match, the transferred patients had longer waiting interval from admission to surgery ( p 0.05), compared with the directly admitted group. Multivariate analysis showed that inter-hospital transfer was not an independent predictor of any surgical outcome. After matching to balance the preoperative characteristics between two groups, no significant differences were identified in all surgical outcomes and total medical cost between two groups (all p > 0.05). Conclusions Compared with directly admitted patients, transferred intestinal obstruction patients are associated with similar surgical outcomes and similar medical costs.