Causes for cancellation of elective surgical procedures in a Spanish general hospital.
prospective_cohort · Level II
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 19413817.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1111/j.1365-2044.2008.05852.x.
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Abstract
Cancellation of scheduled surgery is undesirable for patients and an inefficient use of resources. We prospectively collected data for 52 consecutive months in a public general hospital to estimate the prevalence and causes. The overall cancellation rate was 6.5% (2559 of 39 115 scheduled operations). Cancellation by broad category was for 'medical reasons' in 50%, 'patient-related factors' in 23%, and due to 'administrative/logistic problems' in 25%. The commonest specific causes within these categories were respectively: infections/fever (18%), patient did not attend (20%) and lack of theatre time (23%). This data will help direct resources to target prevention of cancellations as a result of these main problems.
Medical subject headings
- Appointments and Schedules
- Elective Surgical Procedures
- Hospitals, General
- Surgery Department, Hospital