Comparative Analysis of Same-Day Surgery Cancellations for Total Joint Arthroplasty Patients at JPS between 2018 and 2019

Background Same-day surgery cancellations create an enormous financial burden by wasting hospital resources such as healthcare professional labor hours, operating room time, and underutilizing surgical equipment. The aim of this study was to follow-up a previous study investigating reasons for same-day surgery cancellations, and to determine if there has been a decrease in same-day surgery cancellations in 2019 compared to 2018 after the implementation of an optimization clinic. Methods This is an incidence study comparing knee and hip replacement surgical candidates between two years. We will review the reasons for cancellations during 2018 and compare those with our data collected for 2019 knee and hip replacement same-day surgery cancellations. Results We are awaiting data collection and analysis for same-day surgery cancellations in 2019, but the top three reasons for cancellation in 2018 included the discovery or development of a new medical condition and/or contraindication to surgery, abnormal pre-operative test results, and the lack of beds being available. An optimization clinic for all preoperative arthroplasty patients was instituted after collection of the 2018 data. The data collected should reveal if the optimization clinic has led to a decrease in same-day surgery cancellations, and therefore, hospital losses. Conclusions In the 2018 data collection, two areas were identified as having potential for immediate improvement, availability of hospital beds and problems with surgical equipment, implant, or supply. Based on 2018 findings, implementation of strategies to eliminate these issues could decrease the yearly cancellation rate by an additional 30%. With new information on 2019 cancellations, we will not only compare 2018 vs. 2019, but we could follow the data longitudinally to see where JPS could potentially save hundreds of thousands of dollars in the future.