Impact of Interhospital Transfer on Outcomes in Acute Pancreatitis: Implications for Healthcare Quality

<b>Background/Objectives</b>: Effective management of acute pancreatitis (AP) hinges on prompt volume resuscitation and is adversely affected by delays in diagnosis. Given diverse clinical settings (tertiary care vs. community hospitals), further investigation is needed to understand the impact of the initial setting to which patients presented on clinical outcomes and quality of care. This study aimed to compare outcomes and quality indicators between AP patients who first presented to the emergency department (ED) of a tertiary care center and AP patients transferred from community hospitals. <b>Methods</b>: This study included AP patients managed at our tertiary care hospital between 2008 and 2018. We compared demographics and outcomes, including length of stay (LOS), intensive care unit (ICU) admission, rates of local and systemic complications, re-admission rates, and one-year mortality in transferred patients and those admitted from the ED. Quality indicators of interest included duration of volume resuscitation, time until advancement to enteral feeding, pain requiring opioid medication [measured in morphine milliequivalent (MME) dosing], and surgical referrals for cholecystectomy. Categorical variables were analyzed by chi-square or Fisher's exact test; continuous variables were compared using Kruskal-Wallis tests. Regression was performed to assess the impact of transfer status on our outcomes of interest. <b>Results</b>: Our cohort of 882 AP patients comprised 648 patients admitted from the ED and 234 patients transferred from a community hospital. Transferred patients were older (54.6 vs. 51.0 years old, <i>p</i> < 0.01) and had less frequent alcohol use (28% vs. 39%, <i>p</i> < 0.01). Transferred patients had a significantly greater frequency of gallstone AP (40% vs. 23%), but a lower frequency of alcohol AP (16% vs. 22%) and idiopathic AP (29% vs. 41%) (<i>p</i> < 0.001). Regarding clinical outcomes, transferred patients had significantly higher rates of severe AP (revised Atlanta classification) (10% vs. 2% severe, <i>p</i> < 0.001) and ICU admission (8% vs. 2%, <i>p</i> < 0.001) and longer median LOS (5 vs. 4 days, <i>p</i> < 0.001). Regarding quality indicators, there was no significant difference in the number of days of intravenous fluid administration, or days until advancement to enteral feeding, pain requiring opioid pain medication, or rates of surgical referral for cholecystectomy. <b>Conclusions</b>: Though the quality of care was similar in both groups, transferred patients had more severe AP with higher rates of systemic complications and ICU admissions and longer LOS, with no difference in quality indicators between groups.