• Victoria Haana, Kannan Sethuraman, Lisa Stephens, Heather Rosen, and John G Meara.
• Department of Management, University of Melbourne, Australia.
• ANZ J Surg. 2009 Sep 1;79(9):636-40.

BackgroundThis study investigates case cancellations on the intended day of surgery (DOS) at a paediatric hospital in Melbourne, Australia. The hospital in Melbourne treats over 32 000 inpatients annually and handles both elective and emergency cases.MethodsThe data for this paper were collected over a period of 12 months, from June 2004 to June 2005. The data were extracted retrospectively from the theatre computer system. A nurse researcher reviewed the full written details of all cancellations to clarify their cause and confirm the reasons for cancellation; the reasons for cancellation were then sorted into one of 14 groups.ResultsThere were 16 559 theatre bookings, and of these, 1198 (7.2%) were cancelled on the DOS. There was a mean of 3.28 cancellations of surgery on the intended day. The hospital-initiated postponements accounted for 18.5% of DOS cancellations. The top four reasons for cancellation accounted for 65% of all cancelled surgeries and were all patient initiated.ConclusionsThere was also evidence that some specialties were more susceptible to DOS cancellation than others. The paper ends with proposals to reduce patient-initiated cancellations and directions for future research.

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