The study examined 18 months of hospital and surgeon colorectal resection outcomes data from a national inpatient database. Only 13 percent of hospitals had high robotic colorectal surgery case volumes, with more than 20 cases during the 18-month period. Only 4.4 percent of surgeons performed high-volumes of the surgery, with more than 15 cases during the 18-month period.
Lower-volume providers, surgeons and hospitals with less than or equal to 15 and 20 cases respectively during the study period, had significantly higher complications, longer length of stay and higher costs than high-volume providers. This group of providers makes up the vast majority of those performing robotic surgery.
The study recommends robotic surgery should be limited to high-volume providers in order to optimize quality of surgical outcomes.
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