Table 2.
Comparison of Demographic and Clinical Characteristics of Baseline Community-Dwelling Medicare Beneficiaries Age 65 and older1 Who Survived Hospitalization for High-Acuity Emergency General Surgery Disease2 During the First 3 months of 2015 by Discharge Disposition3 (N = 2922)
| Characteristic | Home N = 967 |
Home w/ Services N = 687 |
Rehab4 N = 180 |
SNF4 N = 906 |
LTAC4 N = 122 |
Acute Care Hospital N = 60 |
p-value5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age | <0.001 | ||||||
| 65–74 | 636 (45.9) | 344 (24.8) | 75 (5.4) | 248 (17.9) | 60 (4.3) | 24 (1.7) | |
| 75–84 | 274 (26.5) | 252 (24.4) | 64 (6.2) | 376 (36.4) | 39 (3.8) | 28 (2.7) | |
| 85–94 | 54 (11.5) | 85 (18.0) | 39 (8.3) | 265 (53.3) | 20 (4.2) | - | |
| ≥95 | - | - | - | 17 (54.8) | - | - | |
| Sex | <0.001 | ||||||
| Male | 432 (37.0) | 283 (24.2) | 70 (6.0) | 299 (25.6) | 54 (4.6) | 30 (2.6) | |
| Female | 535 (30.5) | 404 (23.0) | 110 (6.3) | 607 (34.6) | 68 (3.9) | 30 (1.7) | |
| Race6 | |||||||
| White | 848 (32.9) | 600 (23.3) | 166 (6.4) | 812 (31.5) | 102 (4.0) | 52 (2.0) | 0.049 |
| Black | 58 (28.4) | 61 (29.9) | - | 62 (30.4) | 13 (6.4) | - | |
| Other/Unknown | 26 (49.1) | 12 (22.6) | - | 11 (20.8) | - | - | |
| Asian | 13 (39.4) | - | - | - | - | - | |
| Hispanic | 13 (36.1) | - | - | - | - | - | |
| Elixhauser Index | <0.001 | ||||||
| 0 | 113 (67.7) | 36 (21.6) | - | 15 (9.0) | - | - | |
| 1 | 197 (49.7) | 103 (26.0) | 10 (2.5) | 76 (19.2) | - | - | |
| 2 | 222 (41.6) | 141 (26.4) | 30 (5.6) | 118 (22.1) | 11 (2.1) | 12 (2.2) | |
| ≥3 | 435 (23.8) | 407 (22.3) | 139 (7.6) | 697 (38.2) | 107 (5.9) | 40 (2.2) | |
| Admitting Diagnosis6 | <0.001 | ||||||
| Hernias with gangrene | 37 (38.5) | 25 (26.0) | - | 30 (31.3) | - | - | |
| Ischemic enteritis | 100 (21.0) | 87 (18.3) | 22 (4.6) | 109 (22.9) | 24 (50) | 15 (3.2) | |
| Perforated viscus | 240 (31.5) | 138 (18.1) | 51 (6.7) | 267 (35.0) | 48 (6.3) | 18 (2.4) | |
| Necrotizing soft tissue infections | 15 (25.4) | - | - | 20 (33.9) | - | - | |
| Colorectal emergencies | 570 (31.5) | 424 (26.1) | 99 (6.1) | 470 (28.9) | 41 (2.5) | 20 (1.2) | |
| Major surgical complications6 | <0.001 | ||||||
| 0 | 630 (36.4) | 388 (22.4) | 96 (5.5) | 519 (30.0) | 64 (3.7) | 34 (2.0) | |
| 1 | 291 (30.1) | 240 (24.8) | 62 (6.4) | 314 (32.4) | 39 (4.0) | 22 (2.3) | |
| 2 | 43 (21.5) | 56 (28.0) | 17 (8.5) | 64 (32.0) | 16 (8.0) | - | |
| Major systemic complications | <0.001 | ||||||
| 0 | 753 (43.9) | 422 (24.6) | 76 (4.4) | 416 (24.2) | 27 (1.6) | 23 (1.3) | |
| 1 | 176 (20.9) | 194 (23.0) | 70 (8.3) | 340 (40.3) | 45 (5.3) | 19 (2.3) | |
| 2 | 33 (11.0) | 65 (21.7) | 25 (8.3) | 123 (41.0) | 42 (14.0) | 12 (4.0) | |
| ≥3 | - | - | - | 27 (44.3) | - | - | |
| 9 month disposition6 | <0.001 | ||||||
| Home7 | 798 (37.6) | 554 (26.1) | 122 (5.7) | 564 (26.5) | 59 (2.8) | 28 (1.3) | |
| SNF/LTAC | 35 (14.3) | 38 (15.5) | 16 (6.5) | 132 (53.9) | 17 (6.9) | 7 (2.9) | |
| Died | 55 (13.2) | 73 (17.5) | 34 (8.1) | 192 (45.9) | 40 (9.6) | 24 (5.7) | |
| Unknown | 79 (59.0) | 22 (16.4) | - | 18 (13.4) | - | - |
Excludes those who died during index hospitalization (N = 273), were discharged to hospice (N = 81), or had an other/unknown discharge disposition (N =43).
Urgent/Emergent admission Code, emergency general surgery diagnosis of interest (see Supplementary Appendix S1), and operation of interest (see Supplementary Appendix S2) on hospital day #1 or #2.
Results presented as row percentages
Rehab = rehabilitation hospital; SNF = skilled nursing facility; LTAC = long-term acute care facility including a Medicaid facility and intermediate care facilities
Chi2 tests of association
Native American, peritonitis, toxic colitis/enteritis and intra-abdominal hemorrhage, and ≥3 major surgical complications not shown due to all cell counts <10
Home with or without services
Intentionally blank due to cell sizes <10 per data use agreement