Abstract
Cellulitis is commonly misdiagnosed, resulting in increased healthcare costs and complications. There is little published work regarding the relationship between hospital characteristics and cellulitis discharge rates. Here, we performed a cross-sectional analysis of cellulitis inpatient discharges using publicly available national data to examine hospital characteristics associated with higher proportional cellulitis discharge rates. The results of our study showed a strong association of increased proportion of cellulitis discharges in association with hospitals that discharged fewer total patients and a direct association with urban location. The factors that influence hospital cellulitis discharge diagnoses are numerous, and while its overdiagnosis remains a source of medical overspending and complications, our study may provide direction for more focused efforts to increase dermatology care in lower volume hospitals and urban areas.
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Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services website at https://data.cms.gov/provider-summary-by-type-of-service/medicare-inpatienthospitals/medicare-inpatient-hospitals-by-provider-and-service.
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Dr. BHK and FA are responsible for the study conception and design and analysis of results. FA is responsible for data curation. Dr. BHK, FA and RM are responsible for interpretation of results and writing the draft manuscript. FA, RM, Dr. CGC, and Dr. AMK reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.
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B.H. Kaffenberger receives research funding from Biogen, BMS, InflaRx, onQuality, Cara Pharmaceuticals, Dermatology Foundation, and the National Psoriasis Foundation, honoraria from Elsevier, is a consultant for ADC Therapeutics, Biogen, Eli Lilly, Novartis, and Novacure, and is a member of the NCCN panel for Immunotherapy.
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Almhana, F., Mital, R., Chung, C.G. et al. Smaller hospital discharge volume and urban area are associated with higher proportional cellulitis discharges. Arch Dermatol Res 315, 2453–2455 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00403-023-02650-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00403-023-02650-1