Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Health professional shortage areas (HPSAs) were created by the Health Resources and Services Administration to identify communities with a shortage of clinical providers. For medical conditions, these designations are associated with worse outcomes. However, far less is known about patients undergoing high-complexity surgical procedures, such as coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). BACKGROUND: The aim was to compare postoperative surgical outcomes of high-complexity surgery in beneficiaries living in HPSA versus non-HPSA designated areas. METHODS: This study is a retrospective cohort review of Medicare beneficiaries who underwent CABG between 2014 and 2018. The authors compared risk-adjusted 30-day mortality, complication, reoperation, and readmission rates for beneficiaries living in a designated HPSA versus non-HPSA using a multivariable logistic regression model accounting for patient (eg, age, sex, comorbidities, surgery year) and hospital characteristics (eg, patient-to-nurse ratio, teaching status). Patient travel burden was measured based on the time and distance required to travel from the beneficiary's home zip code to the hospital zip code. RESULTS: Of the 370,532 Medicare beneficiaries who underwent CABG, 30,881 (8.3%) lived in a HPSA. Beneficiaries in HPSAs were found to experience comparable 30-day mortality (3.50% vs. 3.65%, P <0.001), complication (32.67% vs. 33.54%, P <0.001), reoperation (1.58% vs. 1.66%, P <0.001), and readmission (14.72% vs. 14.86%, P <0.001) rates. Beneficiaries experienced greater mean travel times (91.2 vs. 64.0 minutes, P <0.001) and mean travel distances (85.0 vs. 59.3 miles, P <0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Medicare beneficiaries living in designated HPSA experienced comparable surgical outcomes after CABG surgery but a significantly greater travel burden. The greater travel burden experienced by patients living in designated shortage areas to obtain comparable surgical care for complex procedures demonstrates important tradeoffs between access and quality.