Sarah Jennings, Obaid Al-Hubaishi, Jo-Anne Douglas, Evan Nemeth, Michael Dunbar
{"title":"Reasons for 90-day emergency department visits after primary knee arthroplasty.","authors":"Sarah Jennings, Obaid Al-Hubaishi, Jo-Anne Douglas, Evan Nemeth, Michael Dunbar","doi":"10.1503/cjs.008824","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Postoperative visits to the emergency department (ED) generate additional costs on health care systems and consume already limited resources. We sought to determine the rate and reasons why patients who underwent primary knee arthroplasty returned to the ED within 90 days of postoperative discharge, which could guide the development of preventative measures.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We identified patients who underwent primary knee arthroplasty at 2 hospitals in Nova Scotia, Canada, between April 2021 and March 2022 and who had an ED visit within 90 days of postoperative discharge. We reviewed data for timing and reason for ED visits.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Of 687 patients who had primary knee arthroplasty surgeries, 145 (21.1%) patients visited the ED within 90 days of postoperative discharge. Most visits occurred in the early postoperative period, predominantly for surgical reasons (94.7% within 7 days) and shifting toward medical reasons over time. Pain was the most common surgical reason for ED visits (15.9%), followed by swelling (9.7%), and hematoma drainage (9.7%).</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Understanding the reasons for postoperative ED visits after knee arthroplasty is important in developing strategies to reduce ED overcrowding and improve patient outcomes. Implementing targeted interventions, such as enhanced pain management and patient education, may help alleviate the burden on EDs, reduce costs, and improve overall health care delivery for patients undergoing knee arthroplasty.</p>","PeriodicalId":9573,"journal":{"name":"Canadian Journal of Surgery","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2000,"publicationDate":"2024-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Canadian Journal of Surgery","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1503/cjs.008824","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/11/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"Print","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"SURGERY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Postoperative visits to the emergency department (ED) generate additional costs on health care systems and consume already limited resources. We sought to determine the rate and reasons why patients who underwent primary knee arthroplasty returned to the ED within 90 days of postoperative discharge, which could guide the development of preventative measures.
Methods: We identified patients who underwent primary knee arthroplasty at 2 hospitals in Nova Scotia, Canada, between April 2021 and March 2022 and who had an ED visit within 90 days of postoperative discharge. We reviewed data for timing and reason for ED visits.
Results: Of 687 patients who had primary knee arthroplasty surgeries, 145 (21.1%) patients visited the ED within 90 days of postoperative discharge. Most visits occurred in the early postoperative period, predominantly for surgical reasons (94.7% within 7 days) and shifting toward medical reasons over time. Pain was the most common surgical reason for ED visits (15.9%), followed by swelling (9.7%), and hematoma drainage (9.7%).
Conclusion: Understanding the reasons for postoperative ED visits after knee arthroplasty is important in developing strategies to reduce ED overcrowding and improve patient outcomes. Implementing targeted interventions, such as enhanced pain management and patient education, may help alleviate the burden on EDs, reduce costs, and improve overall health care delivery for patients undergoing knee arthroplasty.
期刊介绍:
The mission of CJS is to contribute to the meaningful continuing medical education of Canadian surgical specialists, and to provide surgeons with an effective vehicle for the dissemination of observations in the areas of clinical and basic science research.