A study finds that emergency general surgery models improve outcomes significantly for high-risk patients.

• Patients with high-risk conditions in these models had a 15% lower risk of dying within 30 days (adjusted risk ratio 0.85) compared to standard surgeon on-call care.
• For the same group, 90-day mortality was reduced by 18% (adjusted risk ratio 0.82).

Surgeons should consider routing high-risk patients to dedicated emergency surgery centers for better outcomes.

• Complications were also lower in high-risk patients treated in emergency models (adjusted odds ratio 0.68).