The impact of hospital safety‐net burden on mortality and readmission after CABG surgery

Background and Aim Safety‐net hospitals (SNHs) serve high proportions of uninsured and Medicaid patients. Data conflict as to the impact of hospital safety‐net status on perioperative complications. Our goal was to assess the effect of hospital safety‐net burden on mortality and readmission following coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. Methods A retrospective analysis was performed using five State Inpatient Databases (2007‐2014) for isolated CABG surgery. High, medium, and low burden hospitals were those with the highest, middle, and lowest tertiles of uninsured and Medicaid admissions, respectively. We compared patient demographics and hospital characteristics by safety‐net status. Multivariable logistic regression models assessed adjusted odds of in‐hospital mortality and 30‐ and 90‐day readmission. Results About 304 080 patients were included in our analysis. On univariate analysis, high burden hospitals had higher inpatient mortality (2.06% vs 1.71%; P