Need to travel for urologic care: The impact of insurance.

2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (7_suppl) ◽  
pp. 396-396
Author(s):  
Matthew Mossanen ◽  
Kenn Dhartha ◽  
Sarah Holt ◽  
Jonathan L. Wright ◽  
Jonathan D. Harper ◽  
...  

396 Background: We sought to examine the impact of the Affordable Care Act on access to subspecialty services, such as urologic care, through evaluating the need to travel by insurance status for index urologic procedures. Methods: We accessed the Comprehensive Hospital Abstract Reporting System from 2011-2012. Patients were identified using billing claims and ICD-9 codes. Procedures analyzed were: radical cystectomy (RC), radical prostatectomy (RP), transurethral prostate resection, shockwave lithotripsy, nephrectomy, percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL), retroperitoneal lymph node dissection (RPLND), and pyeloplasty. Patients were categorized as Medicaid, Medicare, private/Health Maintenance Organization, or other (i.e. charity care). Hospital service areas (HSAs, where the majority of local patients were hospitalized), and hospital referral regions (HRR, where most patients received tertiary care) were identified. Chi squared analysis and multivariate logistic regression were performed. Results: We identified 600 patients with Medicaid, 3,806 patients with Medicare, 4,998 patients with private insurance, and 554 with other. 13.3% of Medicaid patients undergoing RC left their HRR versus 29.9% for Medicare and 39.8% for private insurance (Chi squared p < 0.05). We found similar trends for RP (10.8% of Medicaid traveled outside of their HRR vs. 19.5% for Medicare and 24.6% for private, p < 0.05) and PCNL (21.9% of patients with private insurance traveled outside of HRR vs. 12% with Medicare and 17.2% with Medicaid, p < 0.05). On multivariate analysis, (adjusting for race, age, and comorbidity) private insurance had higher odds of leaving their HRR (OR = 1.4, CI 1.1 – 1.8, p< 0.002). Non-white patients (OR = 0.66, 0.54 – 0.81, p <0.001), those with increased comorbidities (OR = 0.95, CI 0.91 - .99, p<0.04), and older patients (p < 0.001) are less likely to travel outside of their HRR. Conclusions: Patients undergoing complex urologic procedures like RC, RP, and PCNL are more likely to travel outside of their HRR if they have private insurance, potentially reflecting increased capacity to access healthcare resources based on income. Patients of older age and with greater comorbidities may be less likely to travel outside of their HRR to obtain urologic care.

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (4_suppl) ◽  
pp. 465-465
Author(s):  
Cortlandt Sellers ◽  
Johannes M Ludwig ◽  
Johannes Uhlig ◽  
Stacey Stein ◽  
Jill Lacy ◽  
...  

465 Background: To investigate the impact of socioeconomic factors on overall survival (OS) for patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) at an inner-city tertiary care hospital. Methods: Consecutive patients treated for ICC diagnosed between 2005 and 2016 in the cancer registry were studied. Patients were stratified by demographic, socioeconomic variables, and treatment course. Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox proportional hazard modeling were performed. Results: Patients were 52% male (95 pts) and 74% white (136 pts) with mean age of 65.7 yrs (SD 10.7 yrs). 82% of patients were married or had been previously married (148 pts). 11% of patients had Medicaid as their primary insurance (20 pts), 45% of patients had Medicare (78 pts) and 44% of patients had private insurance (77 pts). Patients with private insurance (66 pts, 87%) and Medicare (64 pts, 83%) were more likely to have been married than Medicaid (12 pts, 60%) (p = 0.036). Patients with Medicare (mean 72.0 yrs, SD 6.9 yrs) were older than private insurance patients (mean 60.3 yrs, SD 10.3 yrs) and Medicaid patients (mean 61.8 yrs, SD 12.4 yrs) (p < 0.001). Gender and ethnicity were similarly distributed by primary insurance. Median OS stratified by primary insurance demonstrated median OS in private insurance of 13.2 mo (95% CI: 8.2–18.7 mo) vs 7.3 mo (95% CI: 3.8–10.6 mo) for Medicare (HR 1.3, p = 0.11) vs 4.7 mo (95% CI: 1.7–11.3 mo) for Medicaid (HR 1.8, p = 0.0488), (p = 0.0465). Cancer-directed treatments were utilized by 81% in private insurance vs. 67% in Medicare vs 67% in Medicaid (p = 0.18). Median OS stratified by main treatment demonstrated 43.3 mo in resection (37 pts, 21%), 17.3 mo in locoregional therapy (LRT) (22 pts, 13%), 10.0 mo in chemotherapy or radiation (79 pts, 45%), and 1.4 mo in palliative or no treatment (37 pts, 21%) (p < 0.0001). Increased age was associated with decreased median OS (correlation -0.23, p = 0.0019). No differences in median OS were seen with ethnicity, gender, or marital status. Conclusions: Screening and early treatments appear to affect the OS of patients with ICC. Further investigations for preventive care for vulnerable populations to enhance survivals are warranted.


2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (4_suppl) ◽  
pp. 466-466
Author(s):  
Cortlandt Sellers ◽  
Johannes M Ludwig ◽  
Johannes Uhlig ◽  
Stacey Stein ◽  
Tamar Hamosh Taddei ◽  
...  

466 Background: To investigate the impact of socioeconomic factors on overall survival (OS) for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) at an inner-city tertiary care hospital. Methods: Consecutive patients treated for HCC diagnosed between 2005 and 2016 in the cancer registry were studied. Patients were stratified by demographic, socioeconomic variables and treatment course. Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox proportional hazard modeling were performed. Results: Patients were 79% male (770 pts) with mean age of 62.8 yrs (SD 10.2 yrs). 25% of patients (239 pts) had private insurance, 38% (363 pts) with Medicare, and 34% (239 pts) with Medicaid. Median OS stratified by primary insurance demonstrated a survival benefit for private insurance with 27.8 mo (95% CI 23.1–33.1) vs 21.0 mo (95% CI 16.5–26.5) for Medicare (HR 0.82, p = 0.0344) vs 13.3 mo (95% CI 10.2–19.7) for Medicaid (HR 0.80, p = 0.0002) (p = 0.0007). When further stratified by AJCC Stage, median OS in Stage II was 55.3 mo (95% CI: 32.4–67.1 mo) for private insurance vs 26.0 mo (95% CI: 18.7–36.3 mo) in Medicare vs 13.2 mo (95% CI: 9.0–38.1 mo) in Medicaid (p = 0.0309). Private insurance in Stage III had a median OS of 23.8 mo (95% CI: 10.9–39.8 mo) vs 14.6 mo (95% CI: 7.5–30.8 mo) in Medicare vs 6.7 mo in Medicaid (95% CI: 2.5–12.2 mo) (p = 0.0069). No differences were seen in Stage I and Stage IV. Cancer-directed treatments were utilized in 91% of private insurance vs 84% in Medicare vs 78% in Medicaid (p < 0.0001). Median OS stratified by marital status showed 23.7 mo (95% CI: 21.0–28.1 mo) for married (720 pts, 76%) vs 5.2 mo (95% CI: 9.6–20.1 mo) for never-married (227 pts, 24%) (p = 0.0009) (HR 1.4, p = 0.0013). Cancer-directed treatments were utilized by 87% of married vs 77% of never-married (p = 0.0016). Increased age was associated with decreased median OS (correlation -0.14, p < 0.0001). No differences in OS were seen with ethnicity or gender. Multivariate Cox proportional analysis demonstrated survival advantage for private insurance versus Medicaid (HR 1.3, p = 0.0435) and Medicare (HR 1.2, p = 0.0472). Conclusions: Primary insurance and social support appear to affect the OS of patients with HCC. Further investigations to elucidate the socioeconomic determinants to enhance survivals are warranted.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. K. Sharma ◽  
V. P. Shrotriya ◽  
D. Imtiaz ◽  
S. B. Gupta

<bold>Introduction:</bold> Perceived Health is a subjective assessment of the physical as well as mental health and includes so many aspects as mentioned in SF-36 form that are difficult to capture clinically such as incipient disease, physiological, psychological reserves and social functions. To assess the impact of Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertension and other socio-demographic factors on the Social Functioning component of mental health of the patients attending a tertiary care hospital in Bareilly. <bold>Material and Methods:</bold> Perceived health status of the patients was assessed by the Social Functioning dimension of the Mental Component Summary (MCS) using the SF-36 form. <bold>Results:</bold> The presence of both Diabetes Mellitus and Hypertension was associated with lower Social Functioning scores compared to those with diabetes (p = 0.013) and hypertension alone. Age was negatively related with Social Functioning scores (p<0.001) but male gender (p>0.000) and higher income (p<0.424) were all associated with higher Social Functioning scores. Rural subjects were found to have better SF score compared to urban. <bold>Conclusion:</bold> Age, gender and morbidity was found to have profound influence on Social Functioning scoring of the subjects. However, the results should be interpreted in terms of the study’s limitations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. s263-s264
Author(s):  
Jordan Polistico ◽  
Avnish Sandhu ◽  
Teena Chopra ◽  
Erin Goldman ◽  
Jennifer LeRose ◽  
...  

Background: Influenza causes a high burden of disease in the United States, with an estimate of 960,000 hospitalizations in the 2017–2018 flu season. Traditional flu diagnostic polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests have a longer (24 hours or more) turnaround time that may lead to an increase in unnecessary inpatient admissions during peak influenza season. A new point-of-care rapid PCR assays, Xpert Flu, is an FDA-approved PCR test that has a significant decrease in turnaround time (2 hours). The present study sought to understand the impact of implementing a new Xpert Flu test on the rate of inpatient admissions. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted to compare rates of inpatient admissions in patients tested with traditional flu PCR during the 2017–2018 flu season and the rapid flu PCR during the 2018–2019 flu season in a tertiary-care center in greater Detroit area. The center has 1 pediatric hospital (hospital A) and 3 adult hospitals (hospital B, C, D). Patients with influenza-like illness who presented to all 4 hospitals during 2 consecutive influenza seasons were analyzed. Results: In total, 20,923 patients were tested with either the rapid flu PCR or the traditional flu PCR. Among these, 14,124 patients (67.2%) were discharged from the emergency department and 6,844 (32.7%) were admitted. There was a significant decrease in inpatient admissions in the traditional flu PCR group compared to the rapid flu PCR group across all hospitals (49.56% vs 26.6% respectively; P < .001). As expected, a significant proportion of influenza testing was performed in the pediatric hospital, 10,513 (50.2%). A greater reduction (30% decrease in the rapid flu PCR group compared to the traditional flu PCR group) was observed in inpatient admissions in the pediatric hospital (Table 1) Conclusions: Rapid molecular influenza testing can significantly decrease inpatient admissions in a busy tertiary-care hospital, which can indirectly lead to improved patient quality with easy bed availability and less time spent in a private room with droplet precautions. Last but not the least, this testing method can certainly lead to lower healthcare costs.Funding: NoneDisclosures: None


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S362-S363
Author(s):  
Gaurav Agnihotri ◽  
Alan E Gross ◽  
Minji Seok ◽  
Cheng Yu Yen ◽  
Farah Khan ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Although it is recommended that an OPAT program should be managed by a formal OPAT team that supports the treating physician, many OPAT programs face challenges in obtaining necessary program staff (i.e nurses or pharmacists) due to limited data examining the impact of a dedicated OPAT team on patient outcomes. Our objective was to compare OPAT-related readmission rates among patients receiving OPAT before and after the implementation of a strengthened OPAT program. Methods This retrospective quasi-experiment compared adult patients discharged on intravenous (IV) antibiotics from the University of Illinois Hospital before and after implementation of programmatic changes to strengthen the OPAT program. Data from our previous study were used as the pre-intervention group (1/1/2012 to 8/1/2013), where only individual infectious disease (ID) physicians coordinated OPAT. Post-intervention (10/1/2017 to 1/1/2019), a dedicated OPAT nurse provided full time support to the treating ID physicians through care coordination, utilization of protocols for lab monitoring and management, and enhanced documentation. Factors associated with readmission for OPAT-related problems at a significance level of p&lt; 0.1 in univariate analysis were eligible for testing in a forward stepwise multinomial logistic regression to identify independent predictors of readmission. Results Demographics, antimicrobial indications, and OPAT administration location of the 428 patients pre- and post-intervention are listed in Table 1. After implementation of the strengthened OPAT program, the readmission rate due to OPAT-related complications decreased from 17.8% (13/73) to 6.5% (23/355) (p=0.001). OPAT-related readmission reasons included: infection recurrence/progression (56%), adverse drug reaction (28%), or line-associated issues (17%). Independent predictors of hospital readmission due to OPAT-related problems are listed in Table 2. Table 1. OPAT Patient Demographics and Factors Pre- and Post-intervention Table 2. Factors independently associated with hospital readmission in OPAT patients Conclusion An OPAT program with dedicated staff at a large academic tertiary care hospital was independently associated with decreased risk for readmission, which provides critical evidence to substantiate additional resources being dedicated to OPAT by health systems in the future. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures


Author(s):  
Yan-Jun Zheng ◽  
Ting Xie ◽  
Lin Wu ◽  
Xiao-Ying Liu ◽  
Ling Zhu ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The incidence of Candida bloodstream infections (BSIs), has increased over time. In this study, we aimed to describe the current epidemiology of Candida BSI in a large tertiary care hospital in Shanghai and to determine the risk factors of 28-day mortality and the impact of antifungal therapy on clinical outcomes. Methods All consecutive adult inpatients with Candida BSI at Ruijin Hospital between January 1, 2008, and December 31, 2018, were enrolled. Underlying diseases, clinical severity, species distribution, antifungal therapy, and their impact on the outcomes were analyzed. Results Among the 370 inpatients with 393 consecutive episodes of Candida BSI, the incidence of nosocomial Candida BSI was 0.39 episodes/1000 hospitalized patients. Of the 393 cases, 299 (76.1%) were treated with antifungal therapy (247 and 52 were treated with early appropriate and targeted antifungal therapy, respectively). The overall 28-day mortality rate was 28.5%, which was significantly lower in those who received early appropriate (25.5%) or targeted (23.1%) antifungal therapy than in those who did not (39.4%; P = 0.012 and P = 0.046, respectively). In multivariate Cox regression analysis, age, chronic renal failure, mechanical ventilation, and severe neutropenia were found to be independent risk factors of the 28-day mortality rate. Patients who received antifungal therapy had a lower mortality risk than did those who did not. Conclusions The incidence of Candida BSI has increased steadily in the past 11 years at our tertiary care hospital in Shanghai. Antifungal therapy influenced short-term survival, but no significant difference in mortality was observed between patients who received early appropriate and targeted antifungal therapy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adil Hazara ◽  
Victoria Allgar ◽  
Maureen Twiddy ◽  
Sunil Bhandari

Abstract Background and Aims Mortality rates are high in patients starting haemodialysis/haemodiafiltration (HD) therapy. Incremental HD may help reduce this risk by reducing the burden of early treatment whilst patients are still adapting to long-term HD therapy. A feasibility study (ENDURE study – Clinical trials ID: NCT04268264) is being conducted with the primary objectives of evaluating the acceptability and tolerance of a new incremental HD regime. Its secondary aims are to evaluate the impact of this form of incremental HD on indicators of patient safety and wellbeing. These indicators include blood pressure (BP) control and interdialytic weight gains (IDWG) which are independently associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes in patients on long-term HD. We present preliminary findings from the study related to systolic BP and IDWG. Method The ENDURE study is being carried out at a tertiary care hospital in the United Kingdom. Patients aged &gt; 18 years known to renal services for at least 90 days, referred for start of HD, were eligible for participation. Following approved consenting procedures, they are started on a new regime of incremental HD starting dialysis twice weekly with progressive increases in the duration and frequency of sessions over 15 weeks. This period is split in to four phases; phase 1 representing the first two days of dialysis (baseline) whereas phases 2 – 4 representing the pre-specified incremental steps. Propensity scores were calculated to match each participant (incremental HD group) with two controls from a database of patients who previously started HD at our centres using the standard protocol of 3 times weekly, 4hr long sessions. The matching criteria accounted for 14 key demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics. Results were analysed as intention to treat. In comparing BP and IDWG between the two groups, only readings taken pre-dialysis at the first session of the week was considered. This study has been approved by the West of Scotland Research Ethics committee-4 (Ref: 19/WS/0019). Results Baseline characteristics of the first 15 participants (target 20) and their matched controls are presented in table 1. The proportion of females and duration of previous specialist input was higher in the incremental HD group. Conclusion The ENDURE study tests the feasibility of starting patients on a novel incremental HD regime. Early data suggest that control of systolic BP and IDWG are comparable to patients who start dialysis at 3 times weekly. Further work is needed to understand the impact of reducing dialysis frequency on BP control correlating the findings with changes residual renal function and objective measures of fluid overload.


Author(s):  
OVAIS ULLAH SHIRAZI ◽  
NORNY SYAFINAZ AB RAHMAN ◽  
CHE SURAYA ZIN ◽  
HANNAH MD MAHIR ◽  
SYAMHANIN ADNAN

Objective: To evaluate the impact of antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) on antibiotic prescribing patterns and certain clinical outcomes, the length of stay (LOS) and the re-admission rate (RR) of the patients treated within the medical ward of a tertiary care hospital in Malaysia. Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted retrospectively. The prescriptions of the AMS included alert antibiotics (AA) such as cefepime, ceftazidime, colistin (polymyxin E), imipenem-cilastatin, meropenem, piperacillin-tazobactam and vancomycin were reviewed for the period of 24 mo before (May, 2012–April, 2014) and after (May, 2014–April, 2016) the AMS implementation for the patients who were treated within the medical ward of a Malaysian tertiary care hospital. Patterns of antibiotics prescribed were determined descriptively. The impact of the AMS on the length of stay (LOS) and readmission rate (RR) was determined by the interrupted time series (ITS) comparative analysis of the pre-and post-AMS segments segregated by the point of onset (May, 2014) of the AMS program. Data analysis was performed through autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) Winter Additive model and the Games-Howell non-parametric post hoc test by using IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 25.0 for Windows (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Results: A total of 1716 prescriptions of the AA included for the AMS program showed that cefepime (623, 36.3%) and piperacillin-tazobactam (424, 24.7%) were the most prescribed antibiotics from May 2012 to April 2016. A 23.6% drop in the number of the AA prescriptions was observed during the 24-month post-AMS period. The LOS of the patients using any of the AA showed a post-AMS decline by 3.5 d. The patients’ LOS showed an average reduction of 0.12 (95% CI, 0.05–0.19, P=0.001) with the level and slope change of 0.18 (95% CI, 0.04–0.32, P=0.02) and 0.074 (95% CI, 0.02–0.12, P=0.002), respectively. Similarly, the percent RR reduced from 20.0 to 9.85 during the 24-month post-AMS period. The observed post-AMS mean monthly reduction of the RR for the patients using any AA was 0.38 (95% CI, 0.23–0.53, P<0.001) with the level and slope change of 0.33 (95% CI, 0.14–0.51, P=0.02) and 0.37 (95% CI, 0.16–0.58, P=0.001), respectively. Conclusion: The AMS program of a Malaysian tertiary care hospital was a coordinated set of interventions implemented by the AMS team of the hospital that comprised of the infectious diseases (ID) physician, clinical pharmacists and microbiologist. The successful implementation of the AMS program from May, 2014 to April, 2016 within the medical ward resulted in the drop of the number of AA prescriptions that sequentially resulted in the significant (P<0.05) post-AMS reduction of the LOS and the RR.


Circulation ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (Suppl_3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamshed Ali ◽  
Osman Faheem ◽  
Pirbhat Shams ◽  
ghufran adnan ◽  
Maria Khan

Introduction: Social containment measures have been adopted globally to control COVID-19 outbreak. Reduction in hospital visits and inpatient admission rates have become cause for concern. Through this study we aimed to analyze the impact of SARS-CoV-2 virus Outbreak on cardiology inpatient admissions at a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan. Hypothesis: COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in significant decline in cardiology admissions. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study at our center. Admission log was accessed via electronic record system. Comparison was made for same months of 2019 and 2020 with regard to cardiology inpatient admissions. Results: A total of 239 patients were admitted to cardiology services in 2019 period and 106 in 2020 period with resultant reduction of 55.6%. Number of patients admitted to the coronary care unit were 179 and 78 respectively where as the numbers declined to 28 from 60 for cardiac step down. Reduction for admission numbered to 52.4% for males and 38.89% for females. 9.3% patients left against medical advice in 2019 and 3.4% in 2020. Conclusions: Our study concludes that numbers of cardiology admissions have dwindled. Possible explanation for this can be implementation of social containment and fear of acquiring infection. This has raised a question of whether a significant number of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality has occurred without seeking medical attention and has went unrecorded during the pandemic. This calls for stringent diagnostic measures in future to diagnose previously unrecorded burden.


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