Interrupted time series study for the impact of introduction of day surgery on hospital length of stay and expenses of laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Abstract

Abstract Since the government of China began to emphasize the innovation of medical service mode in recent years and advocate the implementation of day surgery at the national policy level, the given hospital located in Jiangsu province implemented day surgery mode in 2019. This study investigates the impact of introduction of day Surgery on hospital length of stay (LOS) and expenses for patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC). An interrupted time series (ITS) analysis was conducted based on a sample of 5487 patients from January 2017 to May 2022. The factors surveyed included LOS, per capita total hospitalization expenses, expenses for medical service, diagnosis, treatment and medical consumable materials. ITS analysis showed that LOS decreased significantly (P < 0.001), per capita total expenses showed a gradually decreasing trend (P < 0.001), especially the expenses for medical service (P < 0.001) and treatment (P = 0.001) after the implementation. However, the implementation generated little or no impact on decreasing the diagnosis (P = 0.546) and medical consumable material expenses (P = 0.123). The benefits of implementation of day surgery include hospitals and patients, which contributes to the availability of hospital beds, the efficiency of medical services and had a significant effect on the alleviation of patients’ direct and indirect disease burden.