Effect of time to the operating room on hospital length of stay, postoperative complications, & in-hospital mortality in patients who require emergency general surgery

Abstract

PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to better characterize the effect of the interval in time to the operating room on hospital length of stay and other post-surgical outcomes in adult patients with common emergency general surgery conditions who are admitted to the acute care surgical service at Boston Medical Center.

METHODS: This is retrospective cohort study examining a total of 321 subjects taken from an emergency general surgery registry at Boston Medical Center from May 2014 thru May 2015. Variables analyzed included: demographic factors, Charlson Comorbidity Index scores, times to the operating room, hospital length of stays, post- operative complications, and in-hospital mortality.

RESULTS: There were zero mortalities in this study and a 3.1% post-operative complication rate. There was a positive association between time to the operating room and hospital length of stay, even after controlling for covariates. It was found that those subjects who go to the operating room after 6 hours from the time of admission have an increased hospital length of stay by about 12 hours as compared to those subjects who do not.

CONCLUSIONS: In this study, subjects who went to the operating room sooner from the time of admission had associated shorter hospital length of stays and fewer post- operative complications.