Reasons for Day-of-Surgery Cancellation of Elective Surgical Procedures During the COVID-19 Pandemic Compared to Pre- and Post-COVID-19 Periods.

INTRODUCTION

With the emergence of the global pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2, health service providers were put to the test. The utilization of operating theatres is one of the prime indicators of the logistic and organizational efficacy of a hospital. We performed an analysis evaluating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the fluidity of providing surgical care to a patient with severe comorbidities and the organizational efficacy of the operating theater in a university hospital in northern Poland.

METHODS

Casemix between the periods was tested and Fisher's test was used to examine the significance of the association between (i) patient, (ii) workup, (iii) resource/facility, and (iv) bed-related causes of day-of-surgery cancellations in pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic periods and early- and medium-COVID-19 pandemic periods.

RESULTS

In the study period, a total of 1,935 elective surgeries were booked, 2,219 elective and emergency surgeries were performed, and there were 203 (10.5%) cancellations. Patient-related cancellations increased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, accounting for 18.8% of cancellations, compared to 5.1% in pre- and post-pandemic periods ( = 0.0115). Resource/facility-related reasons remained the most frequent cause, contributing to 57.3% of cancellations during the pandemic.

CONCLUSIONS

Patient-related causes were the most frequent reasons in the COVID-19 pandemic period. Furthermore, patient-related reasons may have contributed to a drop in demand for surgical care and a nonsignificant change in the correlation between demand and supply for surgical care. The further effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on surgical department work are yet to be observed and should be reported to find a solution for growing societies' need for surgical care and find tools to minimize the "damage" caused by the next crisis in global healthcare.