ArticleSurgery today2009
Travel of patients to distant hospitals for elective surgery in Japan: a cross-sectional analysis of a nationally representative sample.
Article in Surgery today, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- [Specialised treatment of colorectal cancer in certified cancer centres: Do patients really have to travel further?]Gesundheitswesen (Bundesverband der Arzte des Offentlichen Gesundheitsdienstes (Germany)) · 2023Article
- General and Vulnerable Population's Satisfaction With the Healthcare System in Urban and Rural Areas: Findings From the European Social Survey.International journal of public health · 2022Article
- Geographic Distribution of Adult Inpatient Surgery Capability in the USA.Journal of gastrointestinal surgery : official journal of the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeThe principles and methods of the geographical allocation of healthcare resources and their relationships with patient behavior have long been issues in the health policy research of many countries. This study aimed to investigate the associations between specific healthcare services such as surgical procedures and the behavior of patients in selecting hospitals that may be related to health service allocations under the relatively deregulated social health insurance settings in Japan.
methodsA total of 520 976 discharge records were analyzed to examine the relationships between patient characteristics, primary diagnoses, interventions, distance to the hospitals of admission, and medical areas designated by local governments.
resultsPatients undergoing cardiac and orthopedic surgery were admitted to hospitals in distant medical areas more than twice as frequently and approximately 1.7 times as far from their residences compared to patients without such surgeries. In contrast, elderly patients and patients undergoing trauma or gastrointestinal surgery were admitted to nearby hospitals.
conclusionsPatients who needed nonemergency and relatively complicated surgical interventions tended to be admitted to distant hospitals, thus suggesting that patients may select better hospitals for elective, technically demanding surgeries.
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Registered trials
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