him. The physicians end up performing cases 1 Saturday every 3
months.
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Scheduling colonoscopies on
Saturdays gives patients an added day
to recover and could decrease the
screening's indirect costs, according
to "Missed Work Related to Mid-Week
Screening Colonoscopy," a study
(osmag.net/5ERWmq) published in
Digestive Diseases and Sciences.
When researchers at the University
of California, San Diego studied 68 working patients who underwent mid-week colonoscopies,
they discovered 34% missed more than 1 day of work to undergo the procedure. One-third took
off the day before the procedure in anticipation of the bowel prep, 10% took the day off after the
procedure and 9% took both days off. No patients took more than 1 day off after the procedure.
Notably, 57% of the patients who took the day off after the procedure did so because of con-
cerns about the lingering effects of moderate sedation. Only a few patients who took the extra
day because they felt poorly actually had symptoms attributable to the colonoscopy.
Cases done on Mondays or Fridays would have less impact on patients missing work, noted the
researchers, who said patients would prefer to get screened at the beginning and end of weeks to
minimize the amount of time off they need to take. Being able to schedule procedures on the
weekend would be an added benefit to patient satisfaction.
The researchers also said that if approximately one-third of the nation's working adults took
an additional day off after their colonoscopies, they would miss out on nearly $800 million in
wages. Scheduling screenings on Saturdays has the potential to eliminate that concern for mil-
lions of patients and their employers. — Daniel Cook
PATIENT PREFERENCE
Saturday Screenings Solve the Day-Off Dilemma
