Relative Influence on Total Cancelled Operating Room Time from Patients Who Are Inpatients or Outpatients Preoperatively

Development and validation of a machine learning ASA-score to identify candidates for comprehensive preoperative screening and risk stratification

OBJECTIVE

The ASA physical status (ASA-PS) is determined by an anesthesia provider or surgeon to communicate co-morbidities relevant to perioperative risk. Assigning an ASA-PS is a clinical decision and there is substantial provider-dependent variability. We developed and externally validated a machine learning-derived algorithm to determine ASA-PS (ML-PS) based on data available in the medical record.

DESIGN

Retrospective multicenter hospital registry study.

SETTING

University-affiliated hospital networks.

PATIENTS

Patients who received anesthesia at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Boston, MA, training [n = 361,602] and internal validation cohorts [n = 90,400]) and Montefiore Medical Center (Bronx, NY, external validation cohort [n = 254,412]).

MEASUREMENTS

The ML-PS was created using a supervised random forest model with 35 preoperatively available variables. Its predictive ability for 30-day mortality, postoperative ICU admission, and adverse discharge were determined by logistic regression.

MAIN RESULTS

The anesthesiologist ASA-PS and ML-PS were in agreement in 57.2% of the cases (moderate inter-rater agreement). Compared with anesthesiologist rating, ML-PS assigned more patients into extreme ASA-PS (I and IV), (p < 0.01), and less patients in ASA II and III (p < 0.01). ML-PS and anesthesiologist ASA-PS had excellent predictive values for 30-day mortality, and good predictive values for postoperative ICU admission and adverse discharge. Among the 3594 patients who died within 30 days after surgery, net reclassification improvement analysis revealed that using the ML-PS, 1281 (35.6%) patients were reclassified into the higher clinical risk category compared with anesthesiologist rating. However, in a subgroup of multiple co-morbidity patients, anesthesiologist ASA-PS had a better predictive accuracy than ML-PS.

CONCLUSIONS

We created and validated a machine learning physical status based on preoperatively available data. The ability to identify patients at high risk early in the preoperative process independent of the provider's decision is a part of the process we use to standardize the stratified preoperative evaluation of patients scheduled for ambulatory surgery.

An In-Depth Analysis of Providers and Services of Cancellation in Anesthesia Reveals a Complex Picture after Systemic Analysis

The variances in operating room (OR) cancellation rates between different service lines and operators within these service lines were assessed by reviewing the electronic medical record (EMR) covering 34,561 cases performed by 199 OR operators in 2018. We assumed that cancellations would differ between different service lines, but the between-operators variance was minimal within the service line. We hypothesized that most variability would be secondary to patient-specific (weekdays, time of year, and national holidays), seasonal and administrative issues. Of 4165 case cancellations, the majority (73.1%) occurred before the patient arrived at the hospital. A total of 60% of all cancellations were within gastroenterology, interventional cardiology, and orthopedics. Cancellation rate variability between surgeons operating within the same service line greatly varied between services from very homogenous to very diverse across providers. The top reasons for cancellation were: date change, canceled by a patient, or "no show". The highest cancellation rates occurred on Mondays and Tuesdays, in January and September, and during weeks associated with national holidays. In summary, cancellation variability must be analyzed at the level of individual specialties, operators, and time variability.

Same-Day Cancellation is Higher in Outpatient Pars Plana Vitrectomy for Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy

Purpose

Safety and efficiency of ambulatory pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) for proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) patients is worthy of attention, since patients always have severe systemic diseases. The purpose of this study was to compare the incidence of same-day cancellation of PPV for PDR between outpatients and inpatients and to analyze the causes of cancellations.

Patients and Methods

This is a retrospective review of consecutive PPV procedures for PDR from January 2019 to April 2021 at either the ambulatory or the inpatient surgery center in an academic tertiary referral center. Data on patient surgery plan, same-day surgical cancellation and follow-up were recorded. Differences in cancellation rate and reasons for cancellation (e.g. medical factors, patient reasons and administrative problems) between outpatients and inpatients were compared.

Results

In total, 1810 consecutive PPV procedures of 1367 patients were identified; 1509 (83.4%) were managed as inpatient surgeries and 301 (16.6%) as outpatient surgeries. The total same-day cancellation rate was 5.2% for all patients. Although outpatients were younger (51 years vs 52 years, P < 0.001), had less proportion of hypertension (60.5% vs 74.0%), coronary artery disease (10.0% vs 18.8%), renal insufficiency (9.3% vs 18.0%) and cerebrovascular diseases (1.0% vs 11.4%) (all P < 0.001), had less proportion of patients with ASA III status (14.9% vs 27.4%, P < 0.001), and had higher proportion of regional anesthesia with MAC (19.9% vs 5.0%, P < 0.001), the cancellation proportion was significantly higher for outpatients than inpatients (12.3% vs 3.8%, P < 0.001). Overall, the most common reason for surgical cancellation was medical factors, occurring more frequently in outpatients than inpatients (91.9% vs 68.4%, P = 0.012).

Conclusion

Same-day cancellation is higher in outpatient pars plana vitrectomy for proliferative diabetic retinopathy. To reduce ambulatory surgery cancellations, it is important to strengthen the monitoring of preoperative systemic comorbidities and adjust medication if necessary.

Most surgeons' daily elective lists in Florida comprise only 1 or 2 elective cases, making percent utilization unreliable for planning individual surgeons' block time

STUDY OBJECTIVE

Operating room (OR) utilization has been shown in multiple studies to be an inappropriate metric for planning OR time for individual surgeons. Among surgeons with low daily caseloads, percentage utilization cannot be measured accurately because confidence limits are extremely wide. In Iowa, a largely rural state, most surgeons performed only 1 or 2 elective cases on their OR days. To assess generalizability, we analyzed Florida, a state with many high-population density areas.

DESIGN

Observational cohort study.

SETTING

The 602 facilities in Florida that performed inpatient or outpatient elective surgery from January 2010 through December 2019.

SUBJECTS

The providers licensed to perform surgery in Florida (physician, oral surgeons, dentists, and podiatrists) were identified by their national provider number. Hospitals were deidentified before analysis.

MEASUREMENTS

The primary endpoint was the mean among facilities in percentages of surgeon-day combinations ("lists") containing 1 or 2 cases. Proportions were calculated using Freeman-Tukey transformation and the harmonic mean of the number of lists at each facility. Comparison to "most" (>50%) used Student's two-sided one-group t-test.

MAIN RESULTS

Averaging among hospitals, most surgeons' lists included 1 or 2 cases (64.4%; 99% confidence interval [CI] 61.3%-67.4%) P < 0.00001). Many lists had 1 case (44.2%, 99% CI 41.2%-47.2%). Nearly all (96.7%) surgeons operated at just one hospital on their OR days.

CONCLUSIONS

Most surgeons' lists of elective surgical cases comprised 1 or 2 cases in the largely urban state of Florida, as previously found in the largely rural state of Iowa. Results were insensitive to organizational size or county population. Thus, our finding is generalizable in the United States. Consequently, neither adjusted nor raw utilization should be used solely when allocating OR time to individual surgeons. Anesthesia and nursing coverage of cases can be based on maximizing the efficiency of use of OR time.

Briefest Time to Perform a Series of Preoperative Nerve Blocks in Multiple Patients: A Simulation Study

Introduction

To mitigate first-case delays in operating rooms, sufficient additional time must be allotted when anesthesiologists perform preoperative nerve blocks in multiple patients who are scheduled as the initial cases of the day. We used spinal anesthetics performed in dedicated block rooms located just outside the operating room suite to estimate the briefest times needed to complete a series of spinal, epidural, peripheral, or other regional nerve blocks. We followed this approach because even though the studied hospital had a busy regional anesthesia service, sample sizes were insufficient and electronic data were not available to directly study the time to perform the many other nerve blocks they perform.

Methods

We studied a historical cohort of 8,462 adult patients undergoing spinal anesthesia between 2005 and 2017. Preoperative evaluation, consent, and holding area tasks were completed before entering the block room; the times to complete these tasks were not available for study. Upon block room entry, the electronic anesthetic record was started, a timeout conducted with patient participation, vital signs taken, and the spinal performed. The interval from entry until intrathecal injection was the spinal block time. Because fits of these times to probability distributions previously used for anesthesia times were poor (p < 0.001), percentiles of times to perform one or more spinal anesthetics were calculated using Monte-Carlo simulation (100,000 samples with replacement) from the empirical distributions.

Results

The mean spinal block time was 8.8 minutes. The 90% upper prediction limit for one block was 14 minutes, with progressively decreasing times for each subsequent block for a 90% chance of finishing on time. For example, for three first-case regional or neuraxial blocks performed outside the operating room by one anesthesiologist, the first patient needs to arrive at least 38 minutes earlier than non-block patients to mitigate operating room start delays.

Conclusions

These minimum time estimates can help nursing leadership ensure that sufficient time will be available after patients are ready for anesthesia to avoid first-case delays when preoperative regional anesthesia is performed outside the operating room. Given that inadequate sample size and documentation issues likely exist universally for the various non-neuraxial preoperative nerve blocks, we recommend that hospitals use our estimates as a minimum starting point rather than try to calculate times using their own data. Then, as a systems-based metric to assess all steps in the process, track the percentages of days for which all blocks were completed in sufficient time to avoid a first-case delay for those patients. Adjustments to the arrival times would then be implemented, if needed, to meet hospital objectives for on-time starts.

Outpatients' perception of their preoperative information regarding their health literacy skills and their preoperative anxiety level: Protocol for a prospective multicenter cross-sectional study

Despite the benefits related to ambulatory surgery such as cost reduction due to lack of accommodation and patient satisfaction due to early home return, it may not lead to these expected benefits. Indeed, this kind of practice can increase responsibility for the person being treated and his or her relatives. It is therefore essential to inform them as well as possible to obtain their adherence to the proposed care protocol. Nevertheless, patients' failures to comply with preoperative instructions or the non-attendance of the patient may result in late cancellation of the scheduled surgery. In order to reduce this kind of dysfunction, the Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (APHP) uses a reminder system by Short Message Service (SMS).This study is a descriptive cross-sectional multicenter study that focuses on outpatients' lived experiences of their preoperative preparation and information. It aims to collect patients' perceptions of their ability to follow preoperative instructions received by SMS the day before an operation performed for ambulatory surgery, according to their level of health literacy (HL) and preoperative anxiety. Indeed, poor communication between patients and doctors can contribute to preoperative anxiety, while low health literacy (LHL) can lead to poor understanding of preoperative preparation instructions. Therefore, it seems important to take these 2 criteria into account in this study. This research is designed to interview outpatients undergoing ambulatory surgery in the establishments of APHP. A self-questionnaire will be used for this purpose. The choice of this institution is justified by its decision to use in all care units the reminder of preoperative instructions by SMS.The main outcome is the perception of outpatients with LHL skills regarding preoperative information provided by doctors.French ethics review committee (Comité d'Ethique de la Recherche) of the University of Paris has approved the study protocol (IRB 00012020-14). Results from this study will be disseminated through oral communications and a scientific article in an international peer-reviewed journal.This protocol is registered on researchregistry.com (researchregistry5834). This version number is 1.1 Protocol dated July 22, 2020.

Impacts of elective surgical cancellations and postponements in Canada

Purpose

Worldwide, patients experience difficulties accessing elective surgical care. This study examined the perceived health, social, and functional impacts of elective surgical cancellations and postponements in Canada.

Methods

We analyzed a subset of aggregate data from the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) annual components from 2005 to 2014. Multivariable logistic regressions examined associations between past-year non-emergency surgical cancellations/postponements and perceived impacts of waiting for surgery (e.g., worry/stress/anxiety, pain, loss of work, loss of income, deterioration of health, relationships suffered).

Results

Among those who experienced a cancellation or postponement of a past-year non-emergency surgery (weighted n = 256,836; 11.8%), 23.5% (weighted n = 60,345) indicated their life was affected by waiting for surgery. After adjusting for type of surgery, year, and sociodemographics, those who experienced a surgical cancellation or postponement had increased odds of reporting their life was affected by waiting for surgery (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 2.67; 99% confidence interval [CI], 1.41 to 5.1); in particular, they reported greater deterioration of their health (aOR, 3.47; 99% CI, 1.05 to 11.4) and increased dependence on relatives/friends (aOR, 2.53; 99% CI, 1.01 to 6.3) than those who did not have a cancellation or postponement.

Conclusion

Results highlight the multifaceted perceived impacts of surgical cancellations/postponements. These findings suggest there is a need for improvements in reducing elective surgical cancellations and postponements. Results may also inform the development of targeted interventions to improve patients’ health and quality of life while waiting for surgery.

Optimization of the Operating Room Scheduling Process for Improving Efficiency in a Tertiary Hospital

Efficient operating room (OR) scheduling can improve OR utilization and reduce costs. We hypothesize that the scheduling office (ORSO) leading the modification scheduling process could increase OR utilization rate. Using retrospective data from a single tertiary hospital in two consecutive calendar years, we compared OR utilization rate, the number of daily cases and cumulative operative time in the pre- and post-implementation of scheduling process alteration. We operated about 100,609 cases in the OR during the study period. Daytime utilization rate increased from 85.6% to 89.4% (P < 0.001); overall OR utilization rate from 115.1% to 117.6% (P = 0.019); daily case numbers from 229.9 ± 7.3 to 239.6 ± 7.6 (P = 0.0.14); and cumulative operation time of total and daytime cases from 611.7 case-hour/day to 624.5 case-hour/day (P = 0.013) and from 510.8 case-hour/day to 533.8 case-hour/day (P < 0.001), respectively. Evening/night time case-hour significantly decreased from 100.9 case-hour/day to 90.7 case-hour/day (P < 0.001). The optimization of the scheduling process and coordination by the office during regular workhours resulted in enhanced OR efficiency. The OR scheduling office can act as a control tower to make OR management more flexible, which can improve efficiency and carry financial benefits in tertiary hospitals.

Caseload is increased by resequencing cases before and on the day of surgery at ambulatory surgery centers where initial patient recovery is in operating rooms and cleanup times are longer than typical

Study objective

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic impacts operating room (OR) management in regions with high prevalence (e.g., >1.0% of asymptomatic patients testing positive). Cases with aerosol producing procedures are isolated to a few ORs, initial phase I recovery of those patients is in the ORs, and multimodal environmental decontamination applied. We quantified the potential increase in productivity from also resequencing these cases among those 2 or 3 ORs.

Design

Computer simulation provided sample sizes requiring >100 years experimentally. Resequencing was limited to changes in the start times of surgeons' lists of cases.

Setting

Ambulatory surgery center or hospital outpatient department.

Main results

With case resequencing applied before and on the day of surgery, there were 5.6% and 5.5% more cases per OR per day for the 2 ORs and 3 ORs, respectively, both standard errors (SE) < 0.1%. Resequencing cases among ORs to start cases earlier permitted increases in the hours into which cases could be scheduled from 10.5 to 11.0 h, while assuring >90% probability of each OR finishing within the prespecified 12-h shift. Thus, the additional cases were all scheduled before the day of surgery. The greater allocated time also resulted in less overutilized time, a mean of 4.2 min per OR per day for 2 ORs (SE 0.5) and 6.3 min per OR per day for 3 ORs (SE 0.4). The benefit could be achieved while limiting application of resequencing to days when the OR with the fewest estimated hours of cases has ≤8 h.

Conclusions

Some ambulatory surgery ORs have unusually long OR times and/or room cleanup times (e.g., infection control efforts because of the pandemic). Resequencing cases before and on the day of surgery should be considered, because moving 1 or 2 cases occasionally has little to no cost with substantive benefit.

•

COVID-19 influences management for aerosol producing procedures.

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Simulation studied case resequencing applied before and on the day of surgery.

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>5% more queued cases can be done per OR per day with practical heuristic.

Sample sizes for surveillance of S. aureus transmission to monitor effectiveness and provide feedback on intraoperative infection control including for COVID-19

Reductions in perioperative surgical site infections are obtained by a multifaceted approach including patient decolonization, hand hygiene, and hub disinfection, and environmental cleaning. Associated surveillance of S. aureus transmission quantifies the effectiveness of the basic measures to prevent the transmission to patients and clinicians of pathogenic bacteria and viruses, including Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). To measure transmission, the observational units are pairs of successive surgical cases in the same operating room on the same day. We evaluated appropriate sample sizes and strategies for measuring transmission.

There was absence of serial correlation among observed counts of transmitted isolates within each of several periods (all P ≥.18). Similarly, observing transmission within or between cases of a pair did not increase the probability that the next sampled pair of cases also had observed transmission (all P ≥.23).

Most pairs of cases had no detected transmitted isolates. Also, although transmission (yes/no) was associated with surgical site infection (P =.004), among cases with transmission, there was no detected dose response between counts of transmitted isolates and probability of infection (P =.25).

The first of a fixed series of tests is to use the binomial test to compare the proportion of pairs of cases with S. aureus transmission to an acceptable threshold. An appropriate sample size for this screening is N =25 pairs. If significant, more samples are obtained while additional measures are implemented to reduce transmission and infections. Subsequent sampling is done to evaluate effectiveness. The two independent binomial proportions are compared using Boschloo's exact test. The total sample size for the 1^st and 2^nd stage is N =100 pairs.

Because S. aureus transmission is invisible without testing, when choosing what population(s) to screen for surveillance, another endpoint needs to be used (e.g., infections). Only 10/298 combinations of specialty and operating room were relatively common (≥1.0% of cases) and had expected incidence ≥0.20 infections per 8 hours of sampled cases. The 10 combinations encompassed ≅17% of cases, showing the value of targeting surveillance of transmission to a few combinations of specialties and rooms.

In conclusion, we created a sampling protocol and appropriate sample sizes for using S. aureus transmission within and between pairs of successive cases in the same operating room, the purpose being to monitor the quality of prevention of intraoperative spread of pathogenic bacteria and viruses.

Same-Day Cancellation in Ambulatory Surgery: A Retrospective Review at a Large Academic Tertiary Referral Center

Although ambulatory surgery offers patients convenience and reduced costs, same-day cancellation of ambulatory surgery negatively affects patient experiences and operational efficiency. We conducted a retrospective analysis to determine the frequency and reasons for same-day cancellations in an outpatient surgery center at a large academic tertiary referral center. Of 41 389 ambulatory surgical procedures performed, same-day cancellations occurred at a rate of 0.5% and were usually unforeseeable in nature. Focusing on foreseeable cancellations offers opportunities for enhanced patient satisfaction, improved quality of care, and systems-based practice improvements to mitigate cancellations related to areas such as scheduling or patient noncompliance.

[Modal analysis of failures and effects in intra-hospital transfers]

OBJECTIVES

To identify gaps in patient safety during intra-hospital transfers.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

A working group was set up and patient transfers carried out in the different healthcare areas of a hospital were identified. Using the Modal Failure and Effects Analysis (FMEA), the risks of each failure mode identified were quantified using the Risk Prioritisation Index (RPI) and establishing improvement measures for all RPIs with scores greater than 100.

RESULTS

There were 31 critical points that could lead to failures / deficiencies in 20 types of transfers. A total of 35 safety improvement measures were proposed for the transfers in the different areas analysed.

CONCLUSIONS

The use of FMEA has made it possible to objectify the risks for patient safety during internal hospital transfers by providing information to prioritise improvement strategies.

Keys to optimizing operating room efficiency

Healthcare is in constant transformation. Health systems should focus on improving efficiency to meet a growing demand for high-quality, low-cost health care. The operating room is one of the biggest sources of revenue and one of the largest areas of expense. Therefore, operating room management is a critical key to success. The aim of this article is to analyze the current principles of organization, optimization and clinical management of the operating room and its impact on the quality and safety of care.

Association of Reduced Delay in Care With a Dedicated Operating Room in Pediatric Otolaryngology

Importance

Obtaining sufficient operating room time for inpatient consults requiring an operative intervention is a persistent challenge for otolaryngologists.

Objective

To examine the institution of an otolaryngology-specific operating room (OR) for unscheduled (add-on) cases for its association with time from initial consultation to surgery and, secondarily, to determine utilization of a dedicated block of time.

Design, Setting, and Participants

Retrospective review of medical records of a tertiary care pediatric hospital for patients treated between January 1, 2015, and March 31, 2016; analysis was concluded by June 2016. Included were all patients undergoing inpatient otolaryngology consultations who required nonemergency operative procedures.

Interventions

In August 2015, a once-weekly 5-hour block of OR time dedicated to inpatient otolaryngology consults was instituted. Prior to this, cases were placed on an add-on list shared between all surgical services.

Main Outcomes and Measures

It was hypothesized that institution of a dedicated block of OR time would decrease the time from initial consultation to operative intervention and would be utilized at a high rate. Operating room utilization was calculated by dividing scheduled OR time by actual OR time utilized. Time from initial consultation to OR intervention was compared before and after the institution of the dedicated OR block.

Results

A total of 316 inpatient add-on pediatric cases (including 108 patients from the intensive care unit [ICU]) were scheduled during the study period. The most common cases were microlaryngoscopy/bronchoscopy (79%) and tracheostomy (8%). Mean (SD) time between consultation and OR intervention was 7.8 (1.6) days prior to establishing the add-on OR and 4.4 (1.3) days after it was established (absolute difference of 3.4 days; 95% CI, 3.1-3.7 days). Mean (SD) time between consultation and OR intervention was 7.4 (5.0) days for ICU patients prior to intervention and 5.6 (3.0) days after intervention (absolute difference of 1.8 days; 95% CI, 1.6-2.0 days). Total utilization of the OR block time was 74%, and adjusted utilization was 86%. There was a 15% drop in the number of unscheduled add-on cases after the intervention (from 10 cases/mo to 8.5 cases/mo; absolute difference of 1.5 cases; 95% CI, 1.1-1.9 cases).

Conclusions and Relevance

Instituting a dedicated otolaryngology add-on OR was associated with significantly reduced time between initial consultation and operative care, by approximately 3 days, decreased the number of unscheduled add-on cases, and was utilized at a high level.

Elective surgery cancelation on day of surgery: An endless dilemma

Background:

Cancelation of surgery is a constant agonizing dilemma for nearly all healthcare services that has been intensively investigated to find out its roots, consequences, and possible solutions. The rates of cancelation of surgery vary between centers and more so among surgical specialties with numerous reasons standing behind this phenomenon.

Patients and Methods:

In the current study, analysis of monthly cancelation rates from January 2009 to December 2012, and assessment of establishing new operating rooms (ORs) using statistical process control charts was conducted. A detailed review of a total of 1813 cases canceled on the day of surgery from January to December 2012, to examine the various reasons of cancelation among surgical specialties.

Results:

The average cancelation rate was 11.1%, which dropped to 9.0% after launching of new theaters. Four reasons explained about 80% of cancelations; Patients “no show” was the leading cause of cancelation (27%). One-fourth of cancelations (24.3%) were due to the need for further optimization, and the third most prominent cause of cancelation was a lack of OR time (19.5%). Unavailability of staff/equipment/implants accounted for only 0.7% of cancelations. The no show was the most common cause of cancelation among all surgical specialties ranging from 21% for plastic surgery to 32% in ophthalmic surgeries.

Conclusion:

It was confirmed that there is a unique profile of cancelation of surgery problem for every institute, an extension of infrastructure may not be the only solution. Control charts helped to enhance the general picture and are functional in monitoring and evaluating changes in the cancelation of surgery.

Day of surgery cancellation rate after preoperative telephone nurse screening or comprehensive optimization visit

Background

Structured preoperative assessment has been reported to improve operating room efficiency as measured by metrics such as day of surgery cancellations (DOSCs). However, not all patients require comprehensive assessment; routine full assessments can result in unnecessary duplication of tests and investigations. Selective nurse screening under the supervision of anesthesiology may provide adequate information gathering in lower risk patients. This study is undertaken to assess if DOSC rates vary with different assessment processes.

Methods

At a single academic tertiary care hospital, from Jan 2 to May 31, 2013, the consecutive patients undergoing comprehensive preoperative assessment (CPA) and nurse screening (NS), as well as the patients not assessed by the anesthesiology-supervised preoperative process, were followed for the occurrence and reason for DOSC. The operating room schedule of all elective surgery patients was analyzed to allow calculation of rates of DOSCs. Reasons for cancellations were documented as one of ten structured reasons by preoperative holding area clerical staff.

Results

Overall, there were 14,893 elective surgery patients in this time period, with 183 DOSCs, giving a rate of 1.23 % (95 % CI 1.06, 1.42). Patients who received CPA numbered 5980; 29 of them had a DOSC, giving a rate of 0.48 % (95 % CI 0.33–0.70) (P < 0.0001 vs. no assessment). Patients receiving NS numbered 1840; 11 of them had a DOSC, giving a rate of 0.60 % (95 % CI 0.30–1.10) (P < 0.0001 vs. no assessment). The most common reason for cancellation was new medical condition.

Conclusions

A very low DOSC rate can be achieved with a comprehensive preoperative process where some patients are selectively telephone screened by nurses, with complete assessment deferred to the anesthesiologist on the day of surgery.

Automated Case Cancellation Review System Improves Systems-Based Practice

BACKGROUND

Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) core competencies of systems-based practice and practice-based learning and improvement are difficult to assess, as they are often not directly measurable or observable. Reviewing day-of-surgery cancellations could provide resident learning opportunities in these areas.

OBJECTIVE

An automated system to facilitate anesthesiology resident review of cancelled cases was implemented on the Preoperative Evaluation Clinic (PEC) rotation at the authors' institution. This study aims to evaluate its impact on resident education.

METHODS

Residents on the PEC rotation during the 6 months preceding (n = 22) and following (n = 13) implementation in 2014 were surveyed about their experience performing cancelled case reviews in order to ascertain the effect of the intervention on their training.

RESULTS

Significant changes were reported in the number of cases reviewed by each resident (p < 0.0001), perceived importance of review (p = 0.03), and ease of review (p = 0.03) after system implementation. There was also an increase in the proportion of cancelled cases reviewed from 17.3% (34 of 196) to 95.6% (194 of 203) (p < 0.0001). Non-significant trends were seen in perceived rotation effect on ACGME competencies, including systems-based practice. Several specific improvements to our clinical practice, including the creation of standardized guidelines, arose from these case reviews.

CONCLUSION

Implementation of automated systems can improve compliance with educational goals by clarifying priorities and simplifying workflow. This system increased the number of cases reviewed by residents and the perceived importance of this review as a part of their educational experience.