Impact of an acute care surgery model with a dedicated daytime operating room on outcomes and timeliness of care in patients with biliary tract disease.

BACKGROUND: Although many acute care surgery (ACS) formats exist, the model established in 2006 at our academic, level 1 trauma center includes a dedicated daytime operating room. The goal of the present study was to evaluate the effect that an ACS model with a dedicated daytime operating suite would have on outcomes and timeliness of care in patients with biliary tract disease.
METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was performed on all patients with biliary tract disease admitted to the University of Alberta Hospital pre- and post-ACS. Data collected included demographic information, medical diagnoses, procedures performed, and complications. Time points included the time from admission to operation, operative time, and length of hospital stay. Pre- and post-ACS groups were compared with the Pearson Chi square test and Student's t test (α = 0.05).
RESULTS: There were 72 patients pre-ACS and 172 post-ACS. The two groups had similar demographics and co-morbidities. The post-ACS group had a shorter time from admission to operation (34.1 vs 24.8 h; p < 0.05). There was a decrease in the number of patients awaiting daytime operating room availability (95.8 vs 60.7 %; p < 0.05), with most surgeries being done within a 24 h period versus patients waiting upwards of 3 days pre-ACS.
CONCLUSIONS: We observed a significant decrease in preoperative time by 10 h with increased access to a readily available operating room. Having a dedicated ACS team is important, but it is equally important to have a dedicated operating room with disposable time to care for unpredictable, emergent cases to realize the full potential benefit of the ACS model.