Variations in the Use of Outpatient Surgery

Identification of factors associated with variation in outpatient surgery may further quality improvement efforts to safely reduce postoperative hospital length of stay nationally.

To explore variation in the use of outpatient surgery, incorporating patient, geographic, and hospital factors.

This retrospective cross-sectional study used deidentified administrative claims data from OptumLabs Data Warehouse. Participants included adults who underwent 1 of 10 general, urological, or gynecological operations between January 1, 2015, and June 30, 2021, in the US. Patients who underwent combined procedures or reoperations or had at least 15 Elixhauser comorbidities were excluded. Data were analyzed from July 26 to December 16, 2023.

Inpatient or outpatient surgical procedures.

Multilevel logistic regression assessed variation in the use of outpatient surgery rates by hospital characteristics (bed size, presence of trainees, and rural referral center status) and hospital census division, adjusting for patient factors (age, sex, number of Elixhauser comorbidities, year, and rural-urban commuting area). This multilevel model allowed for the sources of variability to be quantitatively attributed to patient characteristics, geography, and hospital characteristics.

A total of 330 424 (72.3%) of 456 954 included patients underwent outpatient surgery. The median age was 54 (IQR, 41-67) years, and of those with data available, most patients were female (268 692 of 414 193 [64.9%]). The likelihood of outpatient surgery varied significantly by hospital census division for all 10 operations (eg, MIS salpingo-oophorectomy range, 29.6%-58.8%; P < .001). Variation in hospital census division contributed most to outpatient surgery for 8 of 10 operations compared with other patient and hospital characteristics. Hospital census division contributed the greatest degree to the variation in outpatient simple mastectomy (20.6%) and the least to outpatient open ventral hernia repair (0.7%). Multivariable analysis showed that the odds of outpatient surgery for patients from metropolitan areas were higher for minimally invasive salpingo-oophorectomy (odds ratio [OR], 1.62; 95% CI, 1.34-1.95) and open ventral hernia repair (OR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.09-1.24). Hospitals with 400 or more beds were independently associated with decreased odds of outpatient surgery compared with hospitals with 50 to 199 beds for 4 of 7 operations (MIS paraesophageal hernia repair [OR, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.47-0.71; P < .001]; MIS cholecystectomy [OR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.68-0.78; P < .001]; open ventral hernia [OR, 0.51; 95% CI, 0.46-0.57; P < .001]; MIS ventral hernia repair [OR, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.56-0.77; P < .001]). The presence of a residency training program was independently associated with increased odds of outpatient surgery for simple mastectomy (OR, 1.35; 95% CI, 1.16-1.58; P < .001) and mastectomy with reconstruction (OR, 1.50; 95% CI, 1.27-1.77; P < .001) and decreased odds of outpatient surgery for minimally invasive cholecystectomy (OR, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.92-1.00; P = .04), open ventral hernia repair (OR, 0.93; 95% CI, 0.86-1.00; P = .04), and total thyroidectomy (OR, 0.84; 95% CI, 0.71-1.00; P = .04).

In this cross-sectional study, significant variation existed in the use of outpatient surgery in the US and appeared to be driven primarily by hospital geography. Addressing these variations may improve the use of resources.