Inefficiency in Delivery of General Surgery to Black Patients: A National Inpatient Sample Study

Abstract

Background Racial disparities in outcomes among patients in the United States are widely recognized, but disparities in treatment are less commonly understood. This study is intended to identify treatment disparities in delivery of surgery and time to surgery for diagnoses managed by general surgeons—appendicitis, cholecystitis, gallstone pancreatitis, abdominal wall hernias, intestinal obstructions, and viscus perforations.

Keywords

• general surgery
• disparities
• minorities
• treatment disparities
• discrimination