Reducing failure rates for in-patient oral surgery. The use of a pre-admission clinic.

A large proportion of oral and maxillofacial surgery operations are non-urgent, elective procedures. Approximately 30% of patients called for operation from routine waiting lists consistently fail to attend, thus leading to inefficient bed utilisation and wastage of theatre time. In an attempt to reduce patient failure rates and to investigate reasons for non-attendance, the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery developed a new pre-admission clinic; admission dates for in-patient surgery are only arranged following successful attendance and satisfactory 'clerking in' at the pre-admission clinic. Over an initial 5-month period, in-patient attendance rates increased to 87% and, at the same time, validation of waiting lists was facilitated, with nearly three-quarters of clinic non-attenders eventually being removed from the lists. The pre-admission clinic thus appears to offer a useful and versatile approach towards more efficient in-patient management.