Introduction. Currently, the day-care hospital service is being developed because of the need to improve medical, social and economic efficiency of medical institutions, and by a high demand in this type of medical care. However, there are only few publications on hospital-substituting technologies in pediatric surgery in the domestic literature. In addition, the problem of laparoscopic surgeries in children in a short stay hospital unit is still a controversial issue. Purpose. To evaluate the effectiveness of a short stay surgical department as a structural unit in a multidisciplinary pediatric hospital. Material and methods. The researchers have analyzed the effectiveness of a short-stay hospital surgical unit in the Morozov Children’s Clinical Hospital. The pediatric short stay surgical unit, being a structural subdivision of a multidisciplinary hospital, provides medical care for children in the following profiles: “Pediatric surgery”, “Pediatric urology and andrology”, “Traumatology and orthopedics”, “Ophthalmology”, “Otorhinolaryngology”, “Maxillofacial surgery” and “Gynecology”. Results. From February 2017 till May 2019, 7128 surgical interventions were performed in this unit; 1371 of them were laparoscopic ones for inguinal hernias, varicocele, non-palpable testicular syndrome. In the hospital, a unique anesthetic algorithm for laparoscopic surgeries with a double luminal laryngeal mask and without muscular relaxants and narcotic analgesics was developed. The length of stay of patients in this unit is 6-8 hours, in the average. During the abovementioned 3-year period, only one patient was transferred to a 24-hour hospital. There were no surgical complications. Conclusion. The short-stay surgical unit in the Morozov Children’s Clinical Hospital has radically improved the availability of medical care for children; in addition, more surgical beds for hi-tech medical care are free and available now. Laparoscopic surgeries can be performed in this unit, instead of being performed in the round-clock surgical departments, due to the algorithm of safe anesthesia for planned surgical interventions which had been developed in the short-stay hospital surgical unit.
Correction: Improving value and access to specialty medical care for families: a pediatric surgery telehealth program
