Clinical and socioeconomic correlates in the care of patients with appendicitis
Date
2002-10
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Abstract
The study intended to determine how the quality of care for patients with
appendicitis was affected by several clinical and socioeconomic variables. Data was collected retrospectively from appendectomy cases at the Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital for the year 2000. The following variables were utilized as the parameters for quality of care: time interval from onset of symptoms to surgery, time interval from surgical consult until surgery, number of antibiotics utilized, kind of antibiotic utilized, incidence of late pathology (i.e., ruptured or gangrenous appendicitis), and total length of hospital stay. Analysis was by multiple and logistic regression. Different sets of independent variables (with diverse magnitudes of associations) were determined to be significantly associated with individual quality of care measures.
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Keywords
Appendicitis, Quality of care, Health care financing, Health economics, Surgical outcomes