From 2019 to 2024, the mortality risk for hospitalized surgical patients witnessed a significant reduction of almost 20%. This promising news comes as results of a comprehensive analysis conducted by Vizient, in collaboration with the American Hospital Association (AHA). Numerous factors have been credited for this improvement in surgical outcomes, and the analysis provides detailed observations for different areas in the same regard. For instance, instances of post-operative sepsis declined by 9.2%, respiratory failure post-surgery plummeted by 19%, and post-operative hemorrhage observed a considerable reduction of 22.3%. These trends were observed from the first quarter in 2019 to the last quarter of 2024.
Simultaneously, forecasts from Sg2, a subsidiary company of Vizient, project that acuity for hospitalized surgery patients is anticipated to keep rising. This analytical research also reported reductions in the rate of infections and falls from 2019 to 2024. This report relies on valuable data extracted from Vizient’s extensive database, comprising more than 1,300 hospitals across the nation. For the purpose of this analysis, a concentration of 713 general, acute care hospitals were selected from different regions in the U.S.
With regards to specific cases concerning hospitalized surgical patients, the research denoted that vascular catheter-associated infections saw a decrease of 9.2%, falls reduced by 10.7%, and infections related to catheter-associated urinary tracts dropped down by 6.6%. These efforts were commended by Rick Pollack, the President and CEO of the AHA, in a statement issued on 5th August.
There have been substantial improvements in several patient safety indicators. However, the average length of patients’ hospital stays has recorded an increase by a whole day since the previous measure in 2019. Vizient and AHA explained that this spike is likely due to the rise in patient acuity and delays in accessing post-acute placements exerted by some payers, especially within Medicare Advantage programs.