The Effect of Consultations on the Cost of Pre-Anesthetic Assessment

Background: In our study, researching the distribution of the consultations other than anaesthesia in compliance with the disciplines and ages of the patients and its effect on the assessment cost has been aimed. Methods: Our study has been conducted during 8 months by the retrospective assessment of the records of 3844 cases on which an elective surgical procedure was planned in the anesthesiology polyclinic of Firat University Hospital. The records of patients have been obtained through examining their files from the hospital record system. Results: The total number of patients whose consultations have been demanded was 367 (9.5%) and the number of male/female was 192/175. The number of cases about which more than one consultation has been demanded was determined as 87 (2.2%). The number of cases on which a method change for the anaesthesia was applied was 21 (5.7%), and the number of cases whose surgery was cancelled was 3 (0.81%). Requested consultation for each patient, the consultations of cardiology, chest diseases and internal medicine bring an additional cost on the total sum respectively as 37.2 TL (28.61 $), 29.8 TL (22.92 $) and 19.9 TL (15.30 $). Conclusions: We suggest that the cost analysis should be absolutely taken into consideration during the pre-anaesthetic assessment for the requirement of routine examinations.