Predictors of Gynecologic Surgery Cancellations at a Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Objective:

The study aim is to determine reasons for cancellation of scheduled gynecologic surgeries.

Design:

This is a retrospective study of 760 patients.

Materials and Methods:

Predictor variables were from the domains of demographics (age, race/ethnicity, body mass index, and health insurance), chronic health conditions (diabetes and hypertension), surgical related (surgery type, surgery performed, preoperative diagnosis, and rescheduled), and timeline (day of week and season of year). The outcome was cancellation of gynecologic surgery.

Results:

The variable of rescheduled surgical procedures measured as either no or yes statistically differed (p < 0.001), where there was a greater percentage for “yes” rescheduled surgical procedures in the “yes cancellation” group (97.0%, n = 163) as compared with the “no cancellation” group (0.0%, n = 0). None of the demographics, chronic health conditions, and timeline variables statistically differed between the “no cancellation” and “yes cancellation” groups. Cancellation reasons included “patient” (46.4%, n = 78), “hospital” (37.5%, n = 63), and “unknown” (16.1%, n = 27).

Conclusion:

Our study found that the most common reasons for cancellations were patient related. We recommend that physicians assure that patients are sufficiently counseled before surgical scheduling regarding the importance of the surgery and necessary steps to proceed with the surgery such as presurgical testing and medical clearance. (J GYNECOL SURG 37:308)