Early discharge of publicly funded non-acute hernia repair patients may save healthcare costs by reducing inpatient stays. This study reports a cost analysis of establishing day-care surgeries for publicly funded patients undergoing non-acute hernia repair in Sri Lanka.

A decision tree model was developed to represent the pathway probabilities and costs. Cost data was taken from the Medical Supplies Division, relevant hospitals, and laboratories. Hospital costs per-day were calculated based on WHO-CHOICE model with inflation adjusted to 2022 value. The model assumed that 60 percent of the hernia patients presented to the outpatient department, 39 percent were referred from private clinics, and 1 percent of hernia repairs admitted as inward transfers or emergencies. Of the hernia repairs that were conducted, 95 percent were assumed to be uncomplicated hernias, and the most common post-operative compilation encountered was urine retention accounting for 95 percent of the complicated cases.

It was estimated that in the current situation for a cohort of 1,000 patients undergoing non-acute hernia repair, 2,055 overnight in-hospital days were utilized. If day surgery services can be performed with patients observed for less than 24 hours before being discharged the overnight stay can be reduced to 155 patients. In the current scenario the total cost for non-acute hernia repair at a state hospital was estimated LKR170.9M (≈USD529K) per 1000 patients while the same procedure done as a Day Care procedure cost estimate was LKR155.7M (≈USD482K) per 1000 patients. The savings from implementing day-care surgeries for non-acute hernia repair will amount to approximately LKR15M (≈USD40K) when caring for 1,000 patients. The results were sensitive to length of stay and proportion of complicated cases.

Shifting uncomplicated non-acute hernia repair patients from an inward scenario to a day care scenario would lead to a considerable financial saving to the government. More evidence on the value of expanding day care services and observation services capacity should be explored as this would guide efficient and sustainable publicly funded healthcare system in Sri Lanka.