A study published recently in the American Journal of Surgery confirmed the common perception that breast surgery can be more efficiently performed outside of hospitals in dedicated outpatient ambulatory surgery centers (ASC).
According to study results, performing breast surgery in an ASC rather than a hospital saved 69 minutes on average, and most of the time savings was attributable to decreased preoperative time, or time spent preparing for surgery.
Key time-saving advantages of the ASC include:
- Avoidance of unscheduled surgeries, such as add-on cases and emergency cases common in hospitals
- Better case flow as a result of having a surgeon assigned to a single room in the ASC
- Smaller, more consistent ASC staffing
- Smaller physical ASC facility that makes it easier to move patients and equipment
The study also concluded that while the type of anesthesia used during surgery can also affect recovery time immediately following surgery, this did not significantly affect overall surgical time from the preparation stage to the patient discharge stage.
Hospital vs. ASC study details
In 2005, the study authors’ ASC facility was closed, which forced all outpatient breast surgeries to be performed alternatively in a hospital setting.
Study authors Drs. Terrence Trentman, Jeff Mueller, Richard Gray, Barbara Pockaj and Daniel Simula compared the surgical records of 92 patients who had breast surgery in an ASC facility between January 2004 and December 2005 with the surgical records of 92 patients who had breast surgery in a hospital facility starting January 2006.
All study subjects were female patients of similar age, with similar recovery room times, and each breast surgery procedure was performed by the same two salaried surgeons who did not receive additional bonus pay for productivity.
ASC pre-op vs. post-op
In addition to concluding that ASC facilities offer significant preoperative time-savings, the results of the study also suggest that breast surgery patients spend an almost identical amount of time in an ASC as in a hospital once they reach the operating room.
