Operation Cancellation at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital

Background: Roughly 60,000 operations are performed at our medical center every year,so making efficient use of operating rooms (OR) is an important issue.Decreasing the cancellation rate of surgery is one method that could increaseefficiency. We reviewed all OR cancellations in 2007 to survey the cancellationrates and causes.Methods: The present study was retrospective. Data were collected from theDepartment of Anesthesiology Quality Assurance Database of Chang GungMemorial Hospital. We analyzed medical records for cancellations fromJanuary 1 to December 31, 2007. Data were analyzed using SPSS 16.0,employing descriptive measures and logistic regression.Results: There were 61855 operations scheduled during this period; 229 were cancelled(0.37%). The mean age of patients in the cancelled group was significantlyhigher than that in the the non-cancelled group. We found a positivecorrelation between the cancellation rate and American Society ofAnesthesiologists physical status. Cancellations for outpatient surgery weremost frequent, as were those in the ophthalmology department. Forty-sevencases were cancelled because of cardiovascular problems; 136 operationswere done later after the original cancellation issues were addressed while 11were done under local anesthesia.Conclusions: Of all causes of cancellation of surgery, 54.1% were avoidable. Medicalteams must communicate better with patients and relatives, identify and treatrelevant comorbidities, and make adequate preparations for surgery.