Magnitude and Factors Associated with Elective Surgery Cancellation

Abstract

Background: Elective surgical case cancellation refers to scheduled patients not operated on the scheduled date. The reason for cancelations on mostly related to patients, organizational issues, and clinical staff. Hence, the objective of this study was to assess the magnitude of surgery cancellation and associated factors in Yekatit 12 Hospital Medical College. Methods:A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted at Yekatit 12 Hospital Medical College. All patients scheduled for surgery in the major Operating room (OR) from June 01/2022 to September 30/2022G.C were included in the study and data were collected from the patient registry for cancelation and recovery registry logbook using data extraction checklist and entered into EpiData and then exported to SPSS version 25 for data analysis. Results:In this study, about 692 patients were scheduled for elective surgeries and the surgery of 42 (6.1%), (95% CI: 4.4, 8.1%) patients were canceled. The most common reason identified for cancellation -facility-related (40%), patient-related (16.7%), staff-related (11.9%), emergency (11.9%), acute medical illness (7.1%), lack of investigation (7.1%), and emergency (4.8%).General surgery (20%) and orthopedic surgery (6%) were the most common cases of canceled surgeries. Conclusion:The magnitude of elective surgery cancelation in this study was 6.1% and it was relatively lower than most other studies. Causes for cancellation are preventable and feedback of appropriate data to surgeons and other healthcare workers involved in the care has been shown to be an important component of strategies to reduce cancellation.