Unanticipated admission after day surgery.

Day surgery is becoming more common due to its cost effectiveness as well as patient acceptance. With increasing caseloads, there is a need to maintain quality of care. The purpose of this study is to identify the reasons for unanticipated admissions in our day surgical population, with the aim of improving efficiency of day surgical services, yet maintaining a high standard of patient care. A retrospective review of records of patients who were admitted over the two-year study period was conducted. Unanticipated admission was defined as unplanned admission after a day surgical procedure. Data relating to physical status, perioperative complications and reasons for hospital admission were recorded. A total of 10,801 procedures were done, and 163 patients were admitted. The unanticipated admission rate was 1.5%. Most of the admissions were surgically related (62.8%), followed by anaesthesia (12.2%), social (9.5%) and medical reasons (8.1%). Seventy-five percent of these admissions were potentially preventable. The majority were due to common problems like postoperative pain, admission for surgical observation and for social reasons. Non preventable causes (25%) were mainly due to unrelated medical problems.