A Surgical Desirability of Outcome Ranking (DOOR) Reveals Complex Relationships Between Race/Ethnicity, Insurance Type, and Neighborhood Deprivation.

Jacobs MA, Schmidt S, Hall DE, Stitzenberg KB, Kao LS, Brimhall BB, Wang CP, Manuel LS, Su HD, Silverstein JC, Shireman PK. A Surgical Desirability of Outcome Ranking (DOOR) Reveals Complex Relationships Between Race/Ethnicity, Insurance Type, and Neighborhood Deprivation. Annals of surgery. 2024 Feb 1; 279(2):246-257.

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Abstract:

OBJECTIVE: Develop an ordinal Desirability of Outcome Ranking (DOOR) for surgical outcomes to examine complex associations of Social Determinants of Health. BACKGROUND: Studies focused on single or binary composite outcomes may not detect health disparities. METHODS: Three health care system cohort study using NSQIP (2013-2019) linked with EHR and risk-adjusted for frailty, preoperative acute serious conditions (PASC), case status and operative stress assessing associations of multilevel Social Determinants of Health of race/ethnicity, insurance type (Private 13,957; Medicare 15,198; Medicaid 2835; Uninsured 2963) and Area Deprivation Index (ADI) on DOOR and the binary Textbook Outcomes (TO). RESULTS: Patients living in highly deprived neighborhoods (ADI > 85) had higher odds of PASC [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 1.13, CI = 1.02-1.25, P < 0.001] and urgent/emergent cases (aOR = 1.23, CI = 1.16-1.31, P < 0.001). Increased odds of higher/less desirable DOOR scores were associated with patients identifying as Black versus White and on Medicare, Medicaid or Uninsured versus Private insurance. Patients with ADI > 85 had lower odds of TO (aOR = 0.91, CI = 0.85-0.97, P = 0.006) until adjusting for insurance. In contrast, patients with ADI > 85 had increased odds of higher DOOR (aOR = 1.07, CI = 1.01-1.14, P < 0.021) after adjusting for insurance but similar odds after adjusting for PASC and urgent/emergent cases. CONCLUSIONS: DOOR revealed complex interactions between race/ethnicity, insurance type and neighborhood deprivation. ADI > 85 was associated with higher odds of worse DOOR outcomes while TO failed to capture the effect of ADI. Our results suggest that presentation acuity is a critical determinant of worse outcomes in patients in highly deprived neighborhoods and without insurance. Including risk adjustment for living in deprived neighborhoods and urgent/emergent surgeries could improve the accuracy of quality metrics.