Use of Routine Home Health Care and Deviations From an Uncomplicated Recovery Pathway After Radical Prostatectomy

To evaluate the statistical association between routine home health use after prostatectomy, short-term surgical outcomes, and payments.

We identified all men who underwent a robotic radical prostatectomy from April 1, 2014, to October 31, 2015, in the Michigan Urological Surgery Improvement Collaborative (MUSIC) with insurance from Medicare or a large commercial payer. We calculated rates of "routine" home care use after prostatectomy by urology practice. We defined "routine" home care as home care initiated within 4 days of discharge among patients discharged without a pelvic drain. We then compared emergency department (ED) visits, readmissions, prolonged catheter use, catheter reinsertion rates, and 90-day episode payments, in unadjusted and using a propensity-adjusted analysis, for those who did and did not receive home care.

We identified 647 patients, of whom 13% received routine home health care. At the practice level, the use of routine home care after prostatectomy varied from 0% to 53% (P = .05) (mean: 3.6%, median: 0%). Unadjusted, patients with routine home care had increased ED visits within 16 days (15.5% vs 6.9%, P <.01), similar rates of catheter duration for >16 days (3.6% vs 3.0%, P = .79) and need for catheter replacement (1.2% vs 2.5%, P = .46), and a trend toward decreased readmissions (0% vs 4.1%, P = .06). Only the increased ED visits remained significant in adjusted analyses (P <.01). Home health had an average payment of $1000 per episode.

Thirteen percent of patients received routine home health care after prostatectomy, without improved outcomes. These findings suggest that patients do not routinely require home health care to improve short-term outcomes following radical prostatectomy, however, the appropriate use of home health care should be evaluated further.