A Study on the Frequency and the Reasons for Cancellation of Surgical Operations in Khatam Hospital (Mashhad, Iran) in 2013

Operations cancellation at the last minute is one of the main reasons of inefficiency and waste of resources in Hospitals. This study aims to investigate the reasons and the frequency of operations cancellations in Khatam-al-Anbia Eye Hospital (Mashhad-Iran) in 2013. In this descriptive and cross-sectional study, all canceled scheduled operations in 2013 in Khatam-al-Anbiya Eye Hospital were investigated and the data were recorded in a checklist. Study variables included: 1) the number of planned operations, 2) the number of canceled operations, 3) age, 4) gender and 5) the reason of operation cancellation. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and SPSS16. Of 16512 operations scheduled during 2013, 329 cases (1.99 percent) were canceled. The reason of cancellation was not mentioned in (28.6 percent) of cases. Other reasons of operations cancellation included, in the order of importance, high-risk underlying disease (22.5%), medical advice ignorance from the patient''s behalf (10.6%), change in clinical status (7.9%), prolongation of previous operations (7%), patient’s dissatisfaction (5.8%), Patients'' incomplete Nil Per Os (NPO) time (5.5%), inadequate equipment (4.6%), lack of lab tests and consultations (2.7%), diagnosis change (2.4%), surgeon''s absence (1.8%), and incomplete admission documents (0.6%). In a high percentage of canceled cases, the reasons of operation cancellations had not been mentioned in the patient’s file. A significant portion of theses cancellations can be attributed to the patients'' incomplete cooperation. Cancellations can be significantly reduced through providing the patient with enough instructions and explanations.