Researchers identified 5,780 initial patient encounters with spine surgeons as UCSF. There were 281 instances of readmission after 30 days of discharge, or 4.9 percent of cases.
Of the 281 readmissions, 25 percent, or 69 cases, had nothing to do with spine surgery complications. In 14 cases, the patient had to undergo rescheduled surgery. In 39 cases, the second admission was for a second part of a staged surgery, and in the other 16 cases, readmission was unrelated to spine surgery.
The remaining 212 readmissions, or 75 percent, were related to complication of the initial spine surgery.
Excluding the 69 unrelated readmissions, the cost of hospital readmissions for spine surgery dropped 29 percent, a cost variance of $3 million.
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