Evaluation of Causes of Surgical Case Cancellations and Provide Appropriate Solutions in Order to Enhance the Efficiency of the Operating Room

Introduction & Scheduled surgery program is the first step in running an operating room helpfully and efficiently. Also¡ since cancellation of scheduled surgery is one of the main causes of patients and their relatives’ dissatisfaction as well as inefficient use of operating room time and a waste of resources¡ in this study we evaluated the causes of cancellation and suggest appropriate solutions in order to increase the efficiency of the operating room.
This descriptive and cross - sectional study was conducted in 2011 and data on 1792 surgeries in Namazee Hospital in Shiraz collected using design checklist and case cancellations analyzed using SPSS software (version 18) through descriptive analysis¡ frequency distribution¡ mean and standard deviation.
The results showed that 420 cases (33% of 1272 scheduled surgery) were cancelled. “Operating room” and ‘surgical doctor” were the main reasons of cancellation with 217 cases (52%) and 168 cases (40%) respectively and the lack of operating room capacity with 208 cases (49.5%) and cancellation by the surgeon and replace other patient with 136 cases 32.4% were the most secondary causes cancellation.
The “lack of time” and “cancellation by the doctor” were the most important causes of cancellation. Setting up program for operating room in terms of the type of surgery¡ potency of surgical team¡ time available and monitoring surgical doctors and anesthesia attendance hours as well as management and precise monitor on the process of preparing the patient before surgery were suggested to be considered to improve the quality and management of the operating room.