title: The relationship between duration of stay and readmissions in patients undergoing bariatric surgery.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Hospital readmissions are a quality indicator in bariatric surgery. In recent years, duration of stay after bariatric surgery has trended down greatly. We hypothesized that a shorter postoperative hospitalization does not increase the likelihood of readmission.
  
  
  METHODS
  The University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) is an alliance of academic medical centers and affiliated hospitals. The UHC's clinical database contains information on inpatient stay and returns (readmissions) up to 30 days after discharge. A multicenter analysis of outcomes was performed by the use of data from the January 2009 to December 2013 for patients 18 years and older. Patients were identified by bariatric procedure International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, codes and restricted by diagnosis codes for morbid obesity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 95,294 patients met inclusion criteria. The mean patient age was 45.4 (±0.11) years, and 73,941 (77.6%) subjects were female. There were 5,423 (5.7%) readmissions within the study period. Patients with hospitalizations of 3 days and more than 3 days were twice and four times as likely to be readmitted than those with hospitalizations of one day, respectively (P < .001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients with longer postoperative hospitalizations were more likely to be readmitted after bariatric surgery. Early discharge does not appear to be associated with increased readmission rates.
authors.affiliation: Division of General Surgery, Department of Surgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI.
authors.forename: Alex W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Lois
authors.affiliation: Division of General Surgery, Department of Surgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI.
authors.forename: Matthew J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Frelich
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI.
authors.forename: Natasha A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Sahr
authors.affiliation: University HealthSystem Consortium, Comparative Data and Informatics Research, Chicago, IL; Department of Health Systems Management, Rush University, Chicago, IL.
authors.forename: Samuel F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Hohmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Division of General Surgery, Department of Surgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI. Electronic address: jgould@mcw.edu.
authors.forename: Jon C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Gould
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D050110:Bariatric Surgery; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009767:Obesity, Morbid / Q000601:surgery*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010351:Patient Discharge; D010359:Patient Readmission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult