High resource use prior to elective surgery for osteoarthritis associated with worse outcomes and high post-operative healthcare use and costs: a population-based study in Ontario, Canada

Abstract

Purpose: Studies have shown that high healthcare resource users represent only a small proportion of the population but consume a large share of healthcare funding. With a focus on patients undergoing major elective surgery for osteoarthritis (OA), the goal of this study was to characterize healthcare resource use in the year prior to surgery and compare peri- and post-operative outcomes as well as post-operative healthcare use and costs across gradients of pre-operative volume of resource use.