ArticleMedical care research and review : MCRR2026
Inpatient to Outpatient Shifts in Surgical Care: Persistence of COVID-19 Era Changes and Socioeconomic Variations.
Article in Medical care research and review : MCRR, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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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.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Decreasing Time to Definitive Breast Reconstruction: National Trends and Patient-Level Predictors.Annals of surgical oncology · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted surgical care delivery, yet the extent to which shifts from inpatient to outpatient settings have persisted remains unclear. Using medical claims data from Independence Blue Cross (2018-2022), we examined changes in surgery settings across 102 procedures before the pandemic and during the 2 years following the suspension of elective surgeries. After 2 years, inpatient volumes decreased for 9 of the 20 most common pre-pandemic inpatient procedures, with corresponding increases in outpatient utilization. Hip and knee replacements experienced the most pronounced shifts, with inpatient shares falling by more than 40 percentage points. Patients from lower-income census tracts saw greater declines in overall procedure volumes (-6.0%) compared to those from higher-income areas (+5.2%). Total allowed amounts decreased for procedures with outpatient migration, while out-of-pocket costs remained stable. These findings suggest durable, post-pandemic shifts in surgical care delivery patterns, with potential implications for access, costs, and equity.
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