Traditionally, non-trauma patients needing emergency services had to wait for the general surgeon on call, which led to delays in treatment. The acute care surgery service models combines trauma and emergency general surgery divisions into one 12-hour in-house shift service. The model was implemented at Loma Linda University Medical Center in July 2010.
The researchers compared patient outcomes and cost of operations performed in an acute care setting with a traditional surgical care model in patients undergoing appendectomy and cholecystectomy procedures.
Researchers found that patients benefited significantly from earlier surgical evaluation, earlier surgical intervention, earlier recovery and earlier return to home in the acute care model compared with the traditional model. In addition, the hospital saved thousands of dollars per patient care under the new acute care surgery model.
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