[In Process Citation]

Soaring health care costs are also forcing surgeons and anaesthesiologists to introduce practice patterns that allow more efficient use of expensive hospital resources. Because perioperative ward expenditures account for approximately one-third of the hospital costs incurred for surgical inpatients, with personnel costs being a major component, interventions that decrease the length of stay can result in considerable savings without affecting the quality of care. Interventious that can reduce the length of stay are outpatient preoperative evaluation and same-day admission, improvement of OR efficiency and sufficient cost-effective facilities for qualified postoperative care.