Shift to Outpatient Urologic Surgery Coincides with Increase in Failure-to-Rescue Deaths

​Mortality rates for urologic surgery remained stable overall from 1998 to 2010, but patients had 1.5% annual increases in mortality following complications for the entire period, according to a study published online August 19, 2014, in BJU International. The authors reviewed more than 7.7 million U.S. urologic surgery hospital admissions during the 12-year study and found a slight annual decrease in admissions of 0.63%. However, so-called failure-to-rescue mortality—mortality after a patient suffers complications—showed an absolute increase of 18% for the study period, which the authors indicate coincides with a shift in urologic surgery from inpatient to outpatient settings.