Beyond Clinical Priority: Unplanned Surgical Cases

This paper in Australian Health Review describes the perceptions of operating theatre staff in Australia and The Netherlands regarding the influence of logistical or operational reasons that may affect the scheduling of unplanned surgical cases.

A questionnaire was developed and targeted anaesthetists, managers, nurses and surgeons. The survey found there were significant differences in perceptions of logistics delay factors across different professional groups when patients were waiting for unplanned surgery. "Queue positions of patients waiting for unplanned surgery, or emergency surgery, are determined by medical clinicians according  
to clinicians’ indication of clinical priority."

Fitzgerald, Anneke and Wu, Yong. (2017). Beyond clinical priority: what matters when making operational decisions about emergency surgical queues?  Australian Health Review, 41(4) 384-393.  (open access)