Hospital length of stay, 30-day emergency readmissions and the role of the DrEaMing enhanced recovery pathways in colonic and rectal surgery in England.

BACKGROUND Enhanced recovery pathways (ERPs) are designed to improve patient outcomes after elective surgery. Our primary aim was to examine whether shorter hospital stay, as a surrogate ERP outcome, was associated with higher 30-day emergency readmission rates for colonic and rectal surgery in England. A secondary aim was to assess how hospital trust compliance with a specific postoperative care bundle, drinking, eating, and mobilising (DrEaMing) within 24 h, relates to outcomes. METHODS This was a retrospective analysis of observational data from the Hospital Episode Statistics dataset for England. All patients aged ≥17 yr undergoing elective colonic or rectal surgery for cancer between April 1, 2014, and March 31, 2024, were included. RESULTS Shorter hospital stays were significantly associated with a lower rate of 30-day emergency readmission among 124 580 colonic and 87 036 rectal surgery patients. Comparing the first (reference) and fourth quartile of length of stay, the odds of 30-day emergency readmission increased by 2.16 (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.04-2.30) and 2.41 (95% CI 2.26-2.57) for colonic and rectal surgery, respectively. Increased hospital trust DrEaMing compliance was associated with a reduction in the number of patients with extended length of stay (colonic surgery: X2=24.885, P<0.001; rectal surgery: X2=61.670, P<0.001) and was not associated with 30-day emergency readmission. CONCLUSIONS We found no evidence that shorter length of stay, or greater DrEaMing compliance, were associated with higher emergency admission rates. These findings should not be interpreted as causal.