The following is a summary of “Same-Day Surgery Clinic: A model for improving access to care at academic medical centers,” published in the FEBRUARY 2023 issue of Surgery by Adams et al.
The effectiveness of preoperative surgical care delivery models had yet to be well established. Therefore, a Same-Day Clinic (SDC) was implemented in April 2018 to improve the access and efficiency of general surgical care delivery.
Researchers conducted the study at a single institution and was a retrospective cohort analysis. The study included patients who underwent elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy and inguinal or umbilical hernia repair. The study population comprised 112 patients who received care in the year before the creation of the clinic and 84 patients who received care in the year following its creation.
After the creation of the SDC, the percentage of patients referred after an emergency department visit decreased from 33.4% to 17.9%, and the percentage of patients referred from primary care encounters increased from 28.6% to 44%. The percentage of patients who underwent pre-referral imaging decreased from 58.9% to 44%. Patients who received care in the SDC were seen 11 days sooner than those in the pre-SDC cohort (40 vs. 29 days).
The Same-Day Clinic improved the efficiency and accessibility of surgical care delivery. It also reduced the burden of unnecessary preoperative imaging and enhanced referral networks for historically underserved populations.
Source: americanjournalofsurgery.com/article/S0002-9610(22)00507-4/fulltext
