Assessment of a Standardized Pre-Operative Telephone Checklist Designed to Avoid Late Cancellation of Ambulatory Surgery: The AMBUPROG Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial

Objectives To assess the impact of a standardized pre-operative telephone checklist on the rate of late cancellations of ambulatory surgery (AMBUPROG trial). Design Multicenter, two-arm, parallel-group, open-label randomized controlled trial. Setting 11 university hospital ambulatory surgery units in Paris, France. Participants Patients scheduled for ambulatory surgery and able to be reached by telephone. Intervention A 7-item checklist designed to prevent late cancellation, available in five languages and two versions (for children and adults), was administered between 7 and 3 days before the planned date of surgery, by an automated phone system or a research assistant. The control group received standard management alone. Main Outcome Measures Rate of cancellation on the day of surgery or the day before. Results The study population comprised 3900 patients enrolled between November 2012 and September 2013: 1950 patients were randomized to the checklist arm and 1950 patients to the control arm. The checklist was administered to 68.8% of patients in the intervention arm, 1002 by the automated phone system and 340 by a research assistant. The rate of late cancellation did not differ significantly between the checklist and control arms (109 (5.6%) vs. 113 (5.8%), adjusted odds ratio [95% confidence interval] = 0.91 [0.65-1.29], (p = 0.57)). Checklist administration revealed that 355 patients (28.0%) had not undergone tests ordered by the surgeon or anesthetist, and that 254 patients (20.0%) still had questions concerning the fasting state. Conclusions A standardized pre-operative telephone checklist did not avoid late cancellations of ambulatory surgery but enabled us to identify several frequent causes.