30-day all-cause hospital readmission after cystectomy: no worse for rural Medicare residents

To evaluate rural/urban disparities in 30-day all-cause hospital admission after cystectomy. We used the SEER-Medicare database to identify all Medicare beneficiaries who underwent radical cystectomy (ICD-9 codes 57.7, 57.71, 57.79, and 68.8) between the years 1991 and 2009, yielding a total sample size of 15,572. Our primary outcome was 30-day hospital readmission rate. Rural Urban Continuum Codes were used to designate county-level rural...