The Impact of an Acute Care Surgical Service on the Quality and Efficiency of Care Outcome Indicators for Patients with General Surgical Emergencies

Background Acute care surgery (ACS) models address high volumes of emergency general surgery and emergency room (ER) overcrowding. The impact of ACS service model implementation on the quality and efficiency of care (EOC) outcomes in acute appendicitis (AA) and acute cholecystitis (AC) cohorts was evaluated. Methods A retrospective chart review (N=1,229) of adult AA and AC patients admitted prior to (pre-ACS; n=507; three hospitals; 2007) and after regionalization (R-ACS; n=722; one hospital; 2011). Results R-ACS time to ER physician assessment was significantly longer for AA (3.4 ± 2.3 versus 2.4 ± 2.6 hr; p ≤ 0.001). Surgical response times (1.3 ± 1.2 vs 2.6 ± 4.3 hr for AA; 1.8 ± 1.5 vs 4.1 ± 5.0 hr for AC; p ≤ 0.0001) and acquisition of imaging (4.1 ± 4.1 vs 6.9 ± 9.9 hr for AA, p ≤ 0.0001; 7.8 ± 1.9 vs 13.2 ± 18.5 hr for AC, p ≤ 0.008) occurred significantly faster with R-ACS. R-ACS resulted in a significant increase in night-time appendectomies (21.7% vs 11.1%; p ≤ 0.002), perforated appendices (29.1 % vs 18.9 %; p ≤ 0.006), 30-day readmissions (4.56% vs 0.82%; p ≤ 0.01), and lower rate of intraoperative complications for AC patients (2.78% vs 7.69%; p ≤ 0.02). Conclusions Despite the increased volume of patients seen with the implementation of R-ACS, surgical assessments and diagnostic imaging were significantly more prompt. EOC measures were maintained. Worse AA outcomes highlight areas for improvement in delivering R-ACS.