Task-Sharing for Emergency Neurosurgery: A Retrospective Cohort Study in the Philippines

OBJECTIVE: The safety and effectiveness of task-sharing (TS) in neurosurgery, delegating clinical roles to non-neurosurgeons, is not well understood. This study evaluated an ongoing TS model in the Philippines, where neurosurgical workforce deficits are compounded with a large neurotrauma burden. METHODS: Medical records from emergency neurosurgical admissions to 2 hospitals were reviewed (January 2015–June 2018): Bicol Medical Center (BMC), a government hospital in which emergency neurosurgery is chiefly performed by general surgery residents (TS providers), and Mother Seton Hospital, an adjacent private hospital where neurosurgery consultants are the primary surgeons. Univariable and multivariable linear and logistic regression compared provider-associated outcomes. RESULTS: Of 214 emergency neurosurgery operations, TS providers performed 95 and neurosurgeons, 119. TS patients were more often male (88.4% vs. 73.1%; P = 0.007), younger (mean age, 27.6 vs. 50.5 years; P < 0.001), and had experienced road traffic accidents (69.1% vs. 31.4%; P < 0.001). There were no significant differences between Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) scores on admission. Provider type was not associated with mortality (neurosurgeons, 20.2%; TS, 17.9%; P = 0.68), reoperation, or pneumonia. No significant differences were observed for GCS improvement between admission and discharge or in-hospital GCS improvement, including or excluding inpatient deaths. TS patients had shorter lengths of stay (17.3 days vs. 24.4 days; coefficient, −6.67; 95% confidence interval, −13.01 to −0.34; P < 0.05) and were more likely to undergo tracheostomy (odds ratio, 3.1; 95% confidence interval, 1.30–7.40; P = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: This study, one of the first to examine outcomes of neurosurgical TS, shows that a strategic TS model for emergency neurosurgery produces comparable outcomes to the local neurosurgeons.