Background: Americans living in Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA) only have 44% of the required physician workforce to service their residents. We sought to determine whether residents living in HPSA have worse surgical outcomes than those living in non-HPSA.
Methods: We performed a retrospective review of 1,507,834 Medicare beneficiaries undergoing appendectomy, cholecystectomy, colectomy or hernia repair between 2014 and 2018. Multivariable logistical regression was used to determine the association of living in HPSA with rates of 30-day mortality.
Results: Compared with patients living in non-HPSA, patients living in HPSA traveled farther (median distance 35.3 miles vs. 11.7 miles, p < 0.001) and longer (median 45 min vs. 20 min, p < 0.001) for surgical care. Differences in rates of mortality between patients living in HPSA and non-HPSA (6.0% vs. 6.1%, OR = 0.97, 95% CI 0.97-0.97, p < 0.001) were small.
Conclusion: Medicare beneficiaries living in HPSA experience more than double the travel time and triple the travel distance to undergo common surgical procedures compared to those living in non-HPSA. For those able to overcome the travel burden, the differences in surgical outcomes were small.
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