Days at home track cancer surgery recovery

A 90-day count of days alive and outside care tracked major complications and one-year mortality after elective gastrointestinal cancer surgery.

• The measure counts days outside hospitals or other care facilities; death scores zero.
• Patients with major complications had a median 70 days at home, versus 83 without.

The findings support using this measure in counseling and quality assessment, but do not show that any surgical approach causes more days at home.