Prevalence and Reasons for Cancellation of Elective Dental and Maxillofacial Surgeries in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and reasons for elective dental and oral and maxillofacial surgeries (OMFS) cancellations at a single, tertiary hospital, to determine whether patient demographics are associated with cancellations, and to describe the cancellation phenomenon. Methods: A retrospective record-based study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital in Riyadh from January 2017 to March 2020. For the final analysis, we included 2768 patients who satisfied the inclusion criteria. The descriptive statistics were obtained to investigate the prevalence of elective dental and maxillofacial surgery cancellations at a single, tertiary hospital; we then estimated the overall prevalence and reasons for cancellation across three categories: patient-related reasons, physician-related reasons, and organizational reasons. The Fisher's exact test was performed to evaluate if there were variations in the proportion of reasons for cancellation among participant characteristics and surgical specialties. Results: Out of 2,768 patients who were eligible for OMFS, Pediatric Dentistry, or Special Need Dentistry elective surgeries that have had appointments scheduled at the hospital between January 2017 through March 2020, only 144 patients have had their appointments cancelled. Overall prevalence of cancellation of elective surgeries (CES) is 5.2%. Physician-related cancellation of CES was the highest (66.43%) compared to patient-related (27.86%) and organization-related (5.71%) reasons. Conclusion: Although the CES rate was low compared to the rates reported worldwide, there are some important interventional processes that can help reduce the rate of CES and thereby improve economic efficiency and patient outcomes. Greater attention should be paid to quality improvement strategies, patient adequacy and organizational resources in the early stages of the preoperative period.