Abstract
Objective: Determine demographics and cost analysis for outpatients undergoing parathyroid surgery at hospitals belonging to the University Health System Consortium (UHC).
Method: The UHC, Oak Brook, Illinois, was formed in 1984 and consists of 107 academic medical centers and 232 of their affiliated hospitals. This represents 90% of the nonprofit academic medical centers in the United States (www.uhc.edu). Data was collected from 2004 through 2009 (21 quarters).
Results: There were 13,969 patients who had outpatient parathyroid surgery. The average age was 58.3 (13.5) years. A total of 76.2% of patients were female. The outpatient data is collected from fewer UHC institutions than report their inpatient data. Outpatient data was compared by institutions which reported both out- and inpatient data. A total of 1,890 inpatients (from 12 quarters, 2007-9) with an average LOS of 2.3 days and average facility cost of $7,852 served as an inpatient reference group.
Conclusion: Parathyroid surgery is increasingly being done in the outpatient setting. By virtue of improved surgical technique, anesthesia technique, hemostatic methods, and calcium management this can be done safely. The outpatient approach is a cost effective way to manage parathyroid disease. This is the largest known series reporting outpatient parathyroid surgery.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.