Author: David E. Skarda, M.D.
As the cost of U.S. health care continues to skyrocket, University of Utah surgeons and other researchers have found a way to both decrease cost and improve outcomes as they treat appendicitis, the most common surgical emergency in children. In a study with 580 patients treated for non-ruptured appendicitis, they found that introducing a protocol to eliminate variability in treatment could reduce the duration of hospital stay and total cost of care by 20 percent, while decreasing the rate of readmission, reoperation and other complications. The protocol standardized everything from the evaluation to diagnose appendicitis to the type, dose, duration and timing of prescribing antibiotics before surgery. David E. Skarda, M.D., the study’s first author, says this shows how applying principles learned in the manufacturing industry to health care is safe, decreases cost and improves outcomes.