Overnight observation in stand-alone surgicenters: is the practice safe?

Overview

The safety of performing operations in surgery centers that require overnight stays has not been established. To determine whether this practice is safe we performed a retrospective chart review of all cases performed at Paces over a 12-year period. There were 12,072 total cases and 11,147 general anesthesia (GA) or monitored anesthesia care (MAC) cases. Four thousand eight hundred ten patients stayed overnight. The hospital admission rate for patients undergoing either GA or MAC was 0.12% and for local anesthesia it was 0%. Overnight stay patients had a rate of 0.15%, while same day discharge patients had a rate of 0.08%. Excluding local anesthesia cases, the rate increased to 0.10%. For the GA and MAC patients, there was no statistical difference in hospitalization rates between the same day and the overnight stay groups. All patients had good outcomes after hospitalization. Performing operations that require an overnight stay in a surgery center can be a safe practice.