Table 3.
Comparison of Characteristics of Medicare Beneficiaries Age 65 and older who Survived1 Hospitalization for High-Acuity Emergency General Surgery Disease2 during the First 3 months of 2015 Community Dwelling Status at 9-month Follow-up (N = 2370)
| Characteristic | Living at Home3 N=2125 (89.7) |
Living in SNF or LTAC4 N=245 (10.3) |
P-value5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Age | |||
| 65–74 | 1055 (92.1) | 91 (7.9) | <0.001 |
| 75–84 | 769 (89.3) | 92 (10.7) | |
| 85–94 | 287 (83.2) | 58 (16.8) | |
| ≥95 | 14 (77.8) | - | |
| Race | |||
| White | 1887 (89.8) | 215 (10.2) | 0.95 |
| Black | 149 (89.2) | 18 (10.8) | |
| Asian | 21 (84.0) | - | |
| Hispanic | 21 (87.5) | - | |
| North American Native | 11 (91.7) | - | |
| Other/Unknown | 36 (90.0) | - | |
| Sex | |||
| Male | 822 (91.1) | 80 (8.9) | 0.07 |
| Female | 1303 (88.8) | 165 (12.2) | |
| Elixhauser Index | |||
| 0 | 138 (95.8) | - | <0.001 |
| 1 | 334 (94.4) | 20 (5.6) | |
| 2 | 424 (91.6) | 29 (8.4) | |
| ≥3 | 1229 (87.2) | 180 (12.8) | |
| Admitting Diagnosis Category | |||
| Peritonitis | 12 (75.0) | - | 0.26 |
| Hernias with gangrene | 75 (92.6) | - | |
| Ischemic enteritis | 258 (89.9) | 29 (10.1) | |
| Perforated viscus | 520 (90.0) | 58 (10.0) | |
| Colorectal Emergencies | 1221 (89.7) | 140 (10.3) | |
| Intra-abdominal hemorrhage | - | - | |
| Necrotizing soft tissue infections | 37 (84.1) | - | |
| Major surgical complications | |||
| 0 | 1256 (89.5) | 148 (10.5) | 0.05 |
| 1 | 713 (90.4) | 76 (9.6) | |
| 2 | 145 (90.1) | 16 (9.9) | |
| ≥3 | 11 (68.8) | - | |
| Major systemic complications | |||
| 0 | 1335 (91.7) | 121 (8.3) | <0.000 |
| 1 | 558 (85.7) | 93 (14.3) | |
| 2 | 194 (87.8) | 27 (12.2) | |
| ≥3 | 38 (90.5) | - | |
| Discharge Disposition | |||
| To home | 798 (95.8) | 35 (4.2) | <0.001 |
| To home with services | 554 (93.6) | 38 (6.4) | |
| To rehabilitation hospital | 122 (88.4) | 16 (11.6) | |
| To skilled nursing facility | 564 (81.0) | 132 (19.0) | |
| To long-term acute care facility | 59 (77.6) | 17 (22.4) | |
| To other acute care hospital | 28 (80.0) | - |
Excludes 418 survivors of index hospitalization who died during the follow-up period
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.
With or without services
SNF = skilled nursing facility; LTAC = Long-term acute care facility including a Medicaid facility and intermediate care facilities
Chi2 tests of association
Intentionally blank due to cell sizes <10 per data use agreement