Causes and rate of Cancellation of elective surgeries- A cross-sectional study

Cancellation of elective surgeries could be reduced to a greater extend if one knows the reasons or factors leading to cancellations. Cross sectional study conducted in a multispecialty hospital in Dubai during 2014-2015, to determine the weightage of the causes and the rate of cancellations. Causes were classified into system related, patient related and medical related. Performed quantitative analysis of the causes and rate of cancellations. Trend of cancellations reduced across the period from October 2014 to June 2015. 6008 surgeries were scheduled from October 2014 to June 2015. 5656 surgeries were performed; there were 352 cancellations in total. 6% cases were cancelled. Based on category wise weightage, medical related causes scored the highest reason (69.89%). Patient related causes (15.63%) was slightly more than the system related causes (14.49%). ‘Patient medically unfit for surgery’ ranked highest in the order of the reasons for cancellations. ‘Patients/relatives refused surgery’ was the second highest. ‘Patient had food before the surgery’ though instructed nil oral, ranked the third highest reason. Study of cancellations is important as the identification of the causes of surgery cancellations would help in averting the conditions leading to cancellations. Proper and timely interventions could reduce the cancellation rate. The cancellation rate reduced comparatively in the post study period. Cancellation could cause wastage of valuable time, effort and energy. Moreover, financial burden to patients & hospitals. Resource wastage can be estimated based on the cancellation rate, if the hospital administrators around the world focus their attention to it.