Study characterizes ED visits after total joint procedures

Editor's Note

Emergency department (ED) visits after total joint procedures were numerous and mostly for pain-related diagnoses, and Medicaid patients had almost double the risk of an ED or pain-related ED visit, this study finds.

Of 152,783 patients analyzed, 3.42% returned to the inpatient setting and 5.81% visited the ED within 30 days after surgery.

Among the ED visits, 17.94% had a primary diagnosis of pain, and 25.75% had a primary and/or a secondary diagnosis of pain.

A significantly increased risk of ED visits was associated with type of insurance, when Medicaid and Medicare patients were compared with privately insured, and with race, when black and Hispanic patients were compared with white patients.

It is essential to ensure that all patients, particularly vulnerable populations, receive appropriate postoperative care, including pain management, the authors note.

Background: Major joint replacement surgical procedures are common, elective procedures with a care episode that includes both inpatient readmissions and postoperative emergency department (ED) visits. Inpatient readmissions are well studied; however, to our knowledge, little is known about ED vi...