Do Surgeons Have More Difficulties in the Hospital Care of Non-Surgery Patients Than With Surgery Patients?

• Published in: Cirugia española (English ed.) 2015-05, Vol.93 (5), p.334-338
• Main Authors: Montero Ruiz, Eduardo, Barbero Allende, José María, Melgar Molero, Virginia, Rebollar Merino, Ángela, García Sánchez, Marta, López Álvarez, Joaquín
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Atención perioperatoria; Departamento de Cirugía; Inpatients; Internal Medicine; Medicina Interna; Pacientes ingresados; Perioperative care; Referral and consultation; Remisión y consulta; Surgery; Surgery Department
• ISSN: 2173-5077; 2173-5077
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cireng.2012.11.007

Abstract Objective A variable percentage of patients admitted to surgical departments are not operated on for several reasons. Our goal is to check if surgeons have more problems in caring for non-operated hospitalized patients than operated ones. Material and methods We included all patients aged ≥14 years discharged in 2010 from General Surgery, Gynaecology, Urology, and Otolaryngology. The main variables were the length of stay, mortality, readmissions, and number of consultations/referrals requested to medical services. Secondary variables were age, sex, number of emergency admissions, total number of diagnoses, and the Charlson comorbidity index (ICh). Results Between 8.7% and 22.8% of patients admitted to these surgical departments are not operated on. The non-operated patients had significantly higher stay, mortality, readmissions and consultations/referrals requests than operated ones, with significantly higher age (except Urology), number of diagnoses, emergency admissions and ICh (except Urology). Conclusions Patients admitted to surgical departments and have not been operated on have higher mortality, readmissions and consultation/referrals requests than those operated on, which may be due to their greater medical complexity and urgency of admission. This suggests a greater difficulty in their care by surgeons.