What Factors Contribute to the Delayed Transfers in the Post Anesthetic Care Unit (PACU) at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre?

Purpose: The aim of this study is to find the main factors (medical or non-medical) causing PACU delays at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre using 6-months of data from Sunnybrook’s TrackOR system.

Methods: The dataset collected consisted of 8,391 medical records of surgeries conducted out of which 2,306 patients faced transfer delays, meaning the patients did not leave PACU within 5 minutes of being ready for discharge. Therefore, 2,306 data points were used for the analysis which contained a reason for delayed discharge from PACU. Multivariate linear models are used in the analysis.

Findings: The most common reasons for delays were porter problems (33.8%; n = 735) followed by assigned bed not available on time (20.4%; n = 444) and no bed on unit (15.1%, n = 327). These 3 administrative reasons account for 69.3% of PACU delays.