Postoperative Global Period Cost Reduction Using 3 Successive Risk-Stratified Pancreatectomy Clinical Pathways

We hypothesized that iterative revisions of our original 2016 risk-stratified pancreatectomy clinical pathways would be associated with decreased 90-day perioperative costs.

From a single-institution retrospective cohort study of consecutive patients with 3 iterations: "version 1" (V1) (October 2016 to January 2019), V2 (February 2019 to October 2020), and V3 (November 2020 to February 2022), institutional data were aggregated using revenue codes and adjusted to constant 2022-dollar value. Grand total perioperative costs (primary endpoint) were the sum of pancreatectomy, inpatient care, readmission, and 90-day global outpatient care. Proprietary hospital-based costs were converted to ratios using the mean cost of all hospital operations as the denominator.

Of 814 patients, pathway V1 included 363, V2 229, and V3 222 patients. Accordion Grade 3+ complications decreased with each iteration (V1: 28.4%, V2: 22.7%, and V3: 15.3%). Median length of stay decreased (V1: 6 days, interquartile range [IQR] 5 to 8; V2: 5 [IQR 4 to 6]; and V3: 5 [IQR 4 to 6]) without an increase in readmissions. Ninety-day global perioperative costs decreased by 32% (V1 cost ratio 12.6, V2 10.9, and V3 8.6). Reduction of the index hospitalization cost was associated with the greatest savings (-31%: 9.4, 8.3, and 6.5). Outpatient care costs decreased consistently (1.58, 1.41, and 1.04). When combining readmission and all outpatient costs, total "postdischarge" costs decreased (3.17, 2.59, and 2.13). Component costs of the index hospitalization that were associated with the greatest savings were room or board costs (-55%: 1.74, 1.14, and 0.79) and pharmacy costs (-61%: 2.20, 1.61, and 0.87; all p < 0.001).

Three iterative risk-stratified pancreatectomy clinical pathway refinements were associated with a 32% global period cost savings, driven by reduced index hospitalization costs. This successful learning health system model could be externally validated at other institutions performing abdominal cancer surgery.