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Outpatient management of selected patients with nonvariceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) has been proposed to decrease resource use and healthcare expenditure, but the bleeding-related mortality rate in this group is considerable. Several small studies have compared outcomes in UGIB patients managed with inpatient and outpatient care, but most were limited to participants at a single center (Gastrointest Endosc 2002; 55:1). To obtain national-level data, investigators evaluated the population prevalence and outcome of outpatient therapy in a cohort of 9123 UGIB patients selected from the 2004 Medicare claims database.
Outpatient therapy was provided to 3506 (38.4%) of these patients (mean age, 78). The 30-day mortality rate was det…