Table 1.

Select Patient, Hospital, and Community Characteristics, by In‐Hospital Surgical Complication Status

Characteristic	No Inpatient Surgical Complications	Inpatient Surgical Complications	p‐Value for Pairwise Comparison
Discharges, n	5,242,244	231,823
Length of stay, mean	4.62	16.74	<.0001
Patient characteristics
Race/ethnicity, %a
White (non‐Hispanic)	71.00	71.42	<.0001
Black (non‐Hispanic)	11.05	13.21	<.0001
Other (non‐Hispanic)	6.05	5.89	0.0023
Hispanic	11.90	9.47	<.0001
Age, mean	55.19	62.42	<.0001
Sex, %a,b
Female	60.71	49.65	<.0001
Male	39.29	50.35	<.0001
Risk adjustment score based on PSI methodology, mean	–3.67	–1.93	<.0001
Sum of comorbidities, mean	1.88	3.54	<.0001
Primary expected payer, %a
Medicare	37.99	52.34	<.0001
Medicaid	13.43	10.73	<.0001
Private insurance	39.89	28.38	<.0001
Uninsured	5.25	5.73	<.0001
Other	3.44	2.82	<.0001
Hospital characteristics
Teaching status, %a,b
Teaching	54.99	61.93	<.0001
Nonteaching	45.01	38.07	<.0001
Bed size, mean	437.32	481.00	<.0001
Bed size, %a
<100 beds	5.24	3.14	<.0001
101–200 beds	15.59	12.48	<.0001
201–349 beds	27.53	25.38	<.0001
≥350 beds	51.63	59.00	<.0001
Ownership status, %a
Government	10.62	12.61	<.0001
Private, for‐profit	13.00	11.15	<.0001
Private, nonprofit	76.39	76.24	0.1163
Hospital region, %a
Northeast	24.07	23.57	<.0001
Midwest	16.76	17.65	<.0001
South	34.96	34.97	0.9292
West	24.21	23.81	<.0001
Hospital location, %a
Large metropolitan	61.20	63.05	<.0001
Small metropolitan	33.74	33.05	<.0001
Micropolitan	5.06	3.91	<.0001
Saidin index of hospital technology, mean	9.87	10.38	<.0001
Number of full‐time‐equivalent RNs per 1,000 inpatient days, mean	4.48	4.53	<.0001
Surgical quality composite measure, mean	56.24	55.20	<.0001
Community characteristics
Individuals aged 25+ years with high school diploma or more, % in county	15.30	15.39	<.0001
Rate of unemployed aged 16 years or older, mean	9.33	9.39	<.0001
Median household income in patient's ZIP code, %a
Quartile 1 (lowest)	24.27	26.73	<.0001
Quartile 2	23.88	24.43	<.0001
Quartile 3	26.85	26.13	<.0001
Quartile 4 (highest)	24.99	22.72	<.0001

^aPercentages are column percentages.

^bStatistically significant differences by group.

IHS, Indian Health Service; PSI, Patient Safety Indicators, RN, registered nurse.

Source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, State Inpatient Databases (2011).