• Alberto Ferrando, Cristiana Ivaldi, Alessandro Buttiglieri, Eva Pagano, Chiara Bonetto, Roberto Arione, Luca Scaglione, Elena Gelormino, Franco Merletti, and Giovannino Ciccone.
• ASO San Giovanni Battista, Università di Torino and CPO Piemonte, Unit of Cancer Epidemiology, Italy. aferrando@molinette.piemonte.it
• Int J Qual Health Care. 2005 Aug 1; 17 (4): 323-9.

ObjectiveTo describe preoperative evaluation in the San Giovanni Battista Hospital in Turin and to forecast the economic impact when preoperative assessment guidelines are implemented.DesignWe enrolled, in a month, 702 consecutive patients, excluding cardiac, thoracic, neuro- and vascular surgery, as well as emergency operations. Preoperative assessment data were collected individually, followed by simulating various applications of guidelines based on: (i) preoperative tests relying on full medical history and physical examination to discriminate preoperative risk patients; (ii) organization of a preoperative evaluation unit and tests before patient hospitalization.Main MeasuresMean number of tests prescribed, preoperative assessment cost per patient.ResultsThe application of preoperative guidelines would decrease the mean number of tests prescribed from 20 laboratory and 1.9 instrumental to, respectively, 3 and 1.4 per patient. Tests deemed inappropriate by guidelines did not add any relevant clinical information to our study. Economic analysis estimates a reduction of 63% in cost per patient for preoperative tests by introducing guideline criteria (from 69 euros to 26 euros). As regards the cost per patient for preoperative evaluation and hospital stay (115 euros considering only variable costs, 580 euros including all costs), the application of the guidelines would reduce costs by 41-52% according to different cost evaluation approaches for hospital stay.ConclusionPreoperative guidelines fully introduced in practice could notably increase efficiency without affecting the quality of care.

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