Elective surgical patients with comorbid severe mental illness have worse surgical outcomes and incur higher costs compared with the general surgical population

A retrospective cohort study involving elective overnight surgical patients aged 18 years and above who attended a large public tertiary referral hospital in Sydney, Australia, between 2010 and 2014 analysed the impact that severe mental illness (SMI) had on outcomes. [1] Of 23 343 surgical patient admissions, 451 (2%) patients had decompensated comorbid SMI with…