Ability of a Complexity Scoring System to Predict Veterinary Student Surgical Procedure and Clinic Duration

The Midwestern University College of Veterinary Medicine hosts student-run free clinics that offer surgical sterilization of male and female dogs and cats, with the goal of 20 surgical cases per clinic. Surgical complexity varies significantly between the surgical procedures for males (castration) and females (ovariohysterectomy) and is also influenced by weight and age for dogs. A surgical complexity scoring system was implemented to ensure the minimum number of patients while providing a diverse mix of cases. The aim of this study was to determine whether the surgical complexity scoring system accurately predicted procedure duration. Surgical records were collected between August 2016 and October 2019. Points (1-5) were assigned to each patient at the time of appointment based on species, sex, additional procedure, age and weight, and the schedule was targeted for 50 points. Each point was predicted to account for 15 minutes of surgical time. The duration for each point category was assessed via rank-sum against the predicted median. Sixteen clinics occurred during the study period, having a mean of 40.4 points and 17 patients, 29.5 (74%) of which were allocated to students. There were 264 surgeries, with 241 (91%) having complete start and end times. Surgical duration for student surgeries was not different from the estimate for each point category, with the exception of 2-points, which had a median 5.0 minutes longer than anticipated (p = .0004). The surgical complexity scoring system is an effective tool to optimize scheduling of educational spay/neuter mobile clinics.