Comparison of appendicectomy outcomes: acute surgical versus traditional pathway

Introduction The acute surgical unit (ASU) is an evolving novel concept introduced to address the challenge of maintaining key performance indicators (KPIs) in the face of an increasing acute workload. Methods The aim of this retrospective study was to compare the performance of the ASU (from June 2008 to December 2010) at Auckland City Hospital with the traditional model (from January 2006 to May 2008) and benchmark the results against other similar published studies. The analysis was on the basis of KPIs for 1857 appendicectomies, which form a large volume of acute surgical presentations. Results Our results show significant improvement in length of stay (2.8 days, 2.6 days, P = 0.0001) and proportion of daytime operations (59.4%, 65.8%, P = 0.004), in keeping with other studies on benchmarking. Conclusion The introduction of ASU has led to significant improvements in some KPIs for appendicectomy outcomes in the face of an increasing workload.