Audit of surgical services in a teaching hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study is descriptively analyze services in terms of surgical care, performance and outcome in department of surgery of ZMH which is a university affiliated general hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Data on mode of admission, procedures done and outcome were collected from a monthly audit report, patients file. Information on the number of operating days missed and patients cancelled after being scheduled for surgery were collected from OR logo book. RESULT: Emergency operations constitute 57.4% of all operations. Appendectomy is the commonest emergency operation accounting for 41.5%. Thyroid and gallbladder surgeries were the most common elective operations accounting for 23.5% and 22% respectively. There were 26 and 2 deaths from the emergency and elective operations making the postoperative mortality rate of 2.8% and 0.02% respectively. The average hospital stay of a patient is 3.74 days. 23 of 211 (14.7%) operation dates were missed for various reasons. 81 of 693 (11.7%) elective operations were not done the first time they were scheduled. In conclusion this study showed emergency surgery out number elective surgeries, unacceptably high number of operation days are missed and scheduled surgeries are cancelled.