Impact of distance on postoperative follow-up in patients of pediatric surgery: a retrospective review.

Objective: Centralization of medical services in Canada has resulted in patients travelling long distances for healthcare, which may compromise their health. We hypothesized that children living farther from a children's hospital were offered and attended fewer follow-up appointments.

Methods: We reviewed children less than 17 years of age referred to the general surgery clinic at a tertiary children's hospital during a 2-year period who underwent surgery.

Quality of narrative operative reports in pancreatic surgery.

Background: Quality in health care can be evaluated using quality indicators (QIs). Elements contained in the surgical operative report are potential sources for QI data, but little is known about the completeness of the narrative operative report (NR). We evaluated the completeness of the NR for patients undergoing a pancreaticoduodenectomy.