LAUSR

Key Points Question Was the COVID-19 pandemic associated with an accelerated transition from inpatient to outpatient general surgery procedures in hospitals participating in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program? Findings In this cohort study of 988 436 patients who underwent 16 common general surgery operations, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a significantly increased odds of outpatient surgery for 8 procedures (above and beyond secular trends). However, the actual percentage increase in outpatient cases was small (ie, <10%) for all but 4 procedures. Meaning These findings suggest that despite calls for the expansion of outpatient surgery to mitigate the growing backlog of surgical cases in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, uptake of this practice occurred in only a small subset of operations.