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Reducing same-day surgical delay and cancellation occurrences:

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Hostetler, L. M. (2020). Reducing same-day surgical delay and cancellation occurrences:: A quality improvement project in an outpatient surgery center. Retrieved from Edinboro, Pennsylvania
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TitleReducing same-day surgical delay and cancellation occurrences:
AbstractPatients presenting for surgical procedures must meet specific criteria in order to be deemed ready for surgery. Same-day surgical delays and cancellations often occur due to patients’ inability to follow preoperative instructions. The goal of this quality improvement project was to decrease the number of same-day surgical delay/cancellation occurrences due to patient nonadherence of preoperative instructions. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) Cycle was used in order to test an intervention on a smaller scale in order to determine if it leads to improvement. An evidence-based, standardized preoperative instruction pamphlet was developed and distributed to the patients across three specialties at an outpatient surgery center over a four-week time period. Surgical delay/cancellation occurrences decreased from 4.94% in the pre-intervention phase to 0.57% in the intervention phase. All same-day case cancellations during this project occurred due to patients’ nonadherence to preoperative instructions, more specifically, fasting guidelines. Evidence supports using a standardized, evidence-based, written pamphlet for delivery of preoperative instructions in successfully reducing same-day surgical cancellations. Further research is needed in preoperative instructions for patients speaking languages other than English as well as for patients who cannot read.
Date2020