Predictive factors for unanticipated admission following day case surgery.

In general, a surgical day case is a patient admitted for investigation or operation on a planned non-resident basis who requires facilities for recovery [1]. For these patients the proposed limit of their hospital stay is 23 hours or less [1,2]. In reality, many day surgery units (DSUs) do not operate over a 23-hour period, hence, patients requiring a hospital stay longer than planned will need transfer to a main surgical ward. The Department of Health in the UK has set a target of 75% of elective surgery to be performed as day cases, and it has been recommended that the unplanned admission rate should be less than 3% for these cases [1]. Identifying the predisposing factors contributing to unplanned admissions is vital in order to reduce costs and pressure on acute hospital beds.