Table II.
Hospital-level Characteristics of Encounters of Emergency General Surgery Patients Directly Admitted versus Transferred in from an Acute Care Hospital in the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (2008–2011)
| Variable | Study Group | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Transferred | Directly Admitted | P value | |
| (n= 274,145) | (n= 10,456,100) | ||
| Total number of discharges, median | |||
| (IQR) | 24,368 (16,346–36,692) | 16,132 (8,646–25,902) | <0.0001 |
| Bed size, % (n) | |||
| Small | 6.4 (17,434) | 12.3 (1,283,356) | <0.0001 |
| Medium | 18.4 (50,357) | 25.2 (2,634,351) | |
| Large | 75.3 (206,354) | 62.5 (6,538,393) | |
| Location/teaching status, % (n) | |||
| Rural | 6.8 (18,705) | 12.7 (1,332,222) | <0.0001 |
| Urban non-teaching | 20.8 (56,960) | 48.4 (5,062,333) | |
| Urban teaching | 72.4 (198,479) | 38.8 (4,061,545) | |
| Hospital control/ownership, % (n) | |||
| Government, nonfederal | 16.2 (44,350) | 12.8 (1,343,330) | <0.0001 |
| Private, nonprofit | 77.2 (211,735) | 72.4 (7,567,103) | |
| Private, investor-own | 6.6 (18,060) | 14.8 (1,545,667) | |
| Region, % (n) | |||
| Northeast | 10.5 (28,918) | 16.7 (1,750,921) | <0.0001 |
| Midwest | 38.0 (104,194) | 23.3 (2,437,958) | |
| South | 36.0 (98,676) | 40.9 (4,279,568) | |
| West | 15.5 (42,357) | 19.0 (1,987,654) | |