Social Vulnerability And Outcomes For Access-Sensitive Surgical Conditions Among Medicare Beneficiaries

Concerns have been raised over wide variation in rates of unplanned (emergency or urgent) surgery for access-sensitive surgical conditions-diagnoses requiring surgery that preferably is planned (elective) but, when access is limited, may be delayed until worsening symptoms require riskier and costlier unplanned surgery. Yet little is known about geographic and community-level factors that may increase the likelihood of unplanned surgery with adverse outcomes. We examined the relationship between community-level social vulnerability and rates of unplanned surgery for three access-sensitive conditions in 2014-18 among fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries ages 65-99. Compared with patients from communities with the lowest social vulnerability, those from communities with the highest vulnerability were more likely, overall, to undergo unplanned surgery (36.2 percent versus 33.5 percent). They were also more likely to experience worse outcomes largely attributable to differential rates of unplanned surgery, including higher rates of mortality (5.4 percent versus 5.0 percent) and additional surgery within thirty days (19.6 percent versus 18.1 percent). Our findings suggest that policy addressing community-level social vulnerability may mitigate the observed differences in surgical procedures and outcomes for access-sensitive conditions.