Readmission for venous thromboembolism after emergency general surgery is underreported and influenced by insurance status

BACKGROUND: Prior studies of venous thromboembolism (VTE) after emergency general surgery (EGS) are not nationally representative nor do they fully capture readmissions to different hospitals. We hypothesized that different-hospital readmission accounted for a significant number of readmissions with VTE after EGS and that predictive factors would be different for same- and different-hospital readmissions. METHODS: The 2014 Nationwide Readmissions Database was queried for nonelective EGS hospitalizations. The outcomes were readmission to the index or different hospitals within 180 days with VTE. Multivariate logistic regressions identified risk factors for readmission to index and different hospitals with VTE, reported as odds ratios with their 95% confidence intervals. Patients were excluded if during the index admission they expired, developed a VTE, had a vena cava filter placed, or did not have at least 180 days of follow-up. RESULTS: Of 1,584,605 patients meeting inclusion criteria, 1.3% (n = 20,963) of patients were readmitted within 180 days with a VTE. Of these, 28% (n = 5,866) were readmitted to a different hospital. Predictors overall for readmission with VTE were malignancy, prolonged hospitalization, age, and being publicly insured. However, predictors for readmission to a different hospital are based on hospital characteristics, including for-profit status, or procedure type. CONCLUSIONS: Nearly one in three readmissions with VTE after EGS occurs at a different hospital and may be missed by current quality metrics that only capture same-hospital readmission. Such metrics may underestimate for-profit hospital postoperative VTE rates relative to public and nonprofit hospitals, potentially affecting benchmarking and reimbursement. Postdischarge VTE rate is associated with insurance status. These findings have implications for policy and prevention programming design. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Epidemiological study, level III.