Prioritizations of individual surgeons’ patients waiting for elective procedures: A systematic review and future directions

Abstract

Context: Infrequent use of tools for surgical patients sequencing results in inappropriate prioritization of patients, waiting days/weeks to have their procedures. Objective: The aim of this project was to assess the proportion of peer-reviewed papers about the prioritization of elective surgical patients that would consider the prioritization of individual surgeons’ patients. Data sources: OVID MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Web of Science databases were searched for peer-reviewed papers of studies evaluating developed and/or used tools for prioritization of surgical patients. No restriction was placed on publication date or language. Study design: Systematic review. Data extraction: Data were extracted into a piloted Microsoft Excel 2015 workbook. Results: Among the 146 related papers, only one, published by a study author, used prioritization of individual surgeons’ patients. The single paper illustrated use of a prioritization tool by each of two individual orthopedic surgeons’ patients at a large teaching hospital. Conclusion: There is a paucity of systematic tools for the prioritization of individual surgeons’ patients.