Physician turnover and its association with mortality after non-cardiac surgery: a retrospective cohort analysis of patients in South Korea.

PURPOSE: To assess the association between physician turnover, mortality, and length of hospital stay after non-cardiac surgery in South Korea. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study is based on analysis of the medical records of patients who underwent non-cardiac surgery between January, 2010 and December, 2016. The primary outcomes were the differences in 30-day, 90-day, and overall mortality between non-cardiac surgery performed during the turnover period and that performed during the non-turnover period. RESULTS: The subjects of the analysis were 106,832 patients who underwent non-cardiac surgery. Among them, 17,788 patients underwent surgery during the turnover period and 89,044 underwent surgery during the non-turnover period. Multivariable Cox regression analysis revealed no significant differences in postoperative 30-day mortality (P = 0.427), 90-day mortality (P = 0.854), or overall mortality (P = 0.928) between surgery conducted during the turnover period and that conducted during the non-turnover period. Surgery performed during the physician turnover period was associated with a 0.21-day increase compared with surgery performed during the non-turnover period (coefficient: 0.21, 95% confidence interval: 0.00-0.42, P = 0.038). CONCLUSIONS: Physician turnover was not associated with postoperative 30-day, 90-day, or overall mortality after non-cardiac surgery. However, the length of hospital stay was slightly longer for patients who underwent non-cardiac surgery in the turnover period.