Incidence and root causes of surgery cancellations at an academic medical center in Iran: a retrospective cohort study on 29,978 elective surgical cases.

Introduction: Canceling scheduled surgeries on the day of surgery places a heavy burden on healthcare providers and has psychological, social, and financial consequences on patients and their families. This study aimed to investigate the main reasons for cancellations of elective procedures and provide appropriate recommendations to reduce the rate of such avoidable cancellations.

Methods: Data were collected retrospectively from all consecutive elective cases scheduled for various elective surgeries from January 1, 2020 to March 31, 2022 at Namazi Teaching Hospital, a major referral center in southern Iran with a capacity of 938 beds.