Hospital Teaching Status and Readmission after Open Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair

Readmission to a different hospital is associated with a higher mortality rate for patients undergoing AAA repair at nonteaching hospitals. This effect is not seen in patients having their initial operation performed at teaching hospitals, possibly due to infrastructure at these hospitals allowing for decreased impact from fragmentation of care. In cases where triage to an index hospital for readmission is not possible, communication at a high level between the index hospital and readmission hospital is paramount.