Physician-Targeted Interventions Reduce Surgical Expense and Improve Value-Driven Health Outcomes

Increasing health-care costs in the United States have not translated to superior outcomes in comparison to other developed countries. The implementation of physician-targeted interventions to reduce costs may improve value-driven health outcomes. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of physician-targeted interventions to reduce surgical expenses and improve care for patients undergoing total thyroidectomies.

Two separate face-to-face interventions with individual surgeons focusing on surgical expenses associated with thyroidectomy were implemented in two surgical services (endocrine surgery and otolaryngology) by the surgical chair of each service in Jun 2016. The preintervention period was from Dec 2014 to Jun 2016 (19 mo, 352 operations). The postintervention period was from July 2016 to January 2018 (19 mo, 360 operations). Descriptive statistics were utilized, and differences-in-differences were conducted to compare the pre and postintervention outcomes including cost metrics (total costs, fixed costs, and variable costs per thyroidectomy) and clinical outcomes (30-d readmission rate, days to readmission, and total length of stay).

Patient demographics and characteristics were comparable across pre- and post-intervention periods. Post-intervention, both costs and clinical outcomes demonstrated improvement or stability. Compared to otolaryngology, endocrine surgery achieved additional savings per surgery post-intervention: mean total costs by $607.84 (SD: 9.76; P < 0.0001), mean fixed costs by $220.21 (SD: 5.64; P < 0.0001), and mean variable costs by $387.82 (SD: 4.75; P < 0.0001).

Physician-targeted interventions can be an effective tool for reducing cost and improving health outcomes. The effectiveness of interventions may differ based on specialty training. Future implementations should standardize these interventions for a critical evaluation of their impact on hospital costs and patient outcomes.