Implementation of day of surgery admission for rectal cancer surgery in Ireland following a national centralisation programme.

BACKGROUND: Centralisation of rectal cancer surgery has altered the delivery of colorectal cancer care in Ireland. This has resulted in an increased demand for elective surgical beds in designated centres.

AIM: This study aimed to assess if day of surgery admission (DOSA), in conjunction with implementation of a coordinated enhanced recovery pathway can reduce length of stay following elective rectal cancer resection.

METHODS: This is a retrospective review from a single institution. Our prospectively maintained Dendrite® Database was interrogated. Three time points were analysed across a 7-year period (2011, 2012, 2016). The first predates the introduction of a dedicated DOSA programme, the next was directly thereafter, and the final was 5-years post-implementation. These dates coincide with the centralisation of rectal cancer surgery to this centre. Outcomes included unadjusted length of stay and rates of DOSA pre-and post-implementation of the programme.

RESULTS: The introduction of a DOSA pathway resulted in a fivefold increase in day of surgery admissions and a related 3-day reduction in average length of stay within a single year of implementation. This further improved in 2016, showing an almost 83% increase (15.90-98.50%) in day of surgery admission and a reduction in average length of stay from 16.4 to 12.4 days when compared to 2011.

CONCLUSIONS: Despite an increase in caseload of 54%, an estimated 272 bed days were saved. This demonstrated that DOSA is sustainable and highly effective in tackling the increased inpatient bed demands associated with the growing requirement for elective surgery.