Assessing the Extent and Causes of Cancellation of Surgeries: An Important Issue in Improving the Efficiency of the Hospital

Canceling surgery imposes the high cost of the healthcare provider system and wasted many energy and time from the patient and the care team. This study examined the extent and reasons of canceling of surgeries in one of the hospitals affiliated to Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran. This was a descriptive-applied study. In order to get the number of operations from April 2018 to March 2020, the hospital used HIS software and then extracted the reasons from the operating room office and the quality improvement office in the hospital. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 21 software. Among 8654 planned surgeries, 0.9% were cancelled. The highest frequency of surgical cancellation is associated with general surgery, and the highest rate of surgical cancellation is associated with the ENT specialty. The highest cancellation rate was 1.82% in August 2018 and 2.87% in February 2019. The lack of preparation of patients and patients did not require surgery was the main and worst reason for discontinuing surgery, respectively. The lack of clinical preparation of the patient was the main reason for the cancellation. Therefore, pre-surgery patient evaluation can help solve this problem, make the operating room more effective, and increase patient satisfaction.