Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsElective SurgeryNonelective SurgeryWhich Treatment Is Best?Can They Be Used Together?
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
Elective Surgery
Nonelective Surgery
Which Treatment Is Best?
Can They Be Used Together?
During the COVID-19 pandemic, strains on the healthcare system led states topostpone many elective surgeries. But what factors make a surgery elective or nonelective?
“Elective surgery” is the term used for a procedure that can be safely delayed without great risk to a patient’s health, such as cataract surgery. A nonelective (or emergency) surgery is a procedure that must be performed immediately for lifesaving or damage-preventing reasons, such as in repairing a brain aneurysm. While both types of surgery are medically important for a person’s health, there are key differences between the two.
This article provides an overview of what makes a surgery elective or nonelective and outlines the situations in which they may be used.
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What to Know About Elective Surgery
Simply put,any surgerythat isnotan emergency is considered to be elective surgery. This means that the procedure can be scheduled in advance or postponed without compromising the patient’s health and safety.
How Does It Work?
Contrary to popular belief, the term “elective” does not mean that the surgery is optional or unimportant; it simply means that the procedure is not quite as time-sensitive as nonelective surgery.
In fact, most elective surgeries are considered to be essential and medically necessary, whether it’s for a major condition (such as a hip replacement) or a more minor one (such as cataract surgery).
Other examples of elective surgeries are:
Researchers estimate that about 90% of surgeries performed in the United States are considered to be elective.
What Is Elective Surgery?
Elective Surgery Delivery
After your healthcare provider refers you to asurgeonor suggests that you have surgery, your diagnosis and overall health will be assessed to confirm the need for elective surgery.
Your elective surgery may be performed asinpatient surgery, which means that a hospital overnight stay is required, or outpatient surgery, meaning you can typically go home the same day.
Prices & Where to Get It
Health insuranceplans do pay for elective surgery if it’s deemed to bemedically necessary. But keep in mind that the insurer’s definition of “medically necessary” may not align with your surgeon’s.
If you don’t have access to health insurance or are planning topay for the surgery out of pocket, be sure to ask the surgeon or hospital for a breakdown of typical procedure costs. This includes items like anesthesia expenses, hospital care, labs, medications, and more—in addition to the surgeon’s bill and the cost of the surgical suite.
What to Know About Nonelective Surgery
When there’s a medical emergency, surgery often needs to be done right away to save a patient’s life or prevent permanent damage. This is a nonelective (or emergency) surgery.
Nonelective surgery is designed to deal quickly with urgent medical issues that can be life-threatening or require emergency care.
As the American College of Surgeons points out, nonelective surgeries often involve greater health risks than elective (scheduled) surgery due to the time-sensitive nature of the procedure.
Examples of nonelective surgeries include procedures to treat:
It’s estimated that nonelective general surgeries represent about 11% of hospital admissions in the United States.
What Is a Nonelective Surgery?Nonelective surgery is often lifesaving surgery to treat an urgent medical need. It’s typically performed without any advance planning.
What Is a Nonelective Surgery?
Nonelective surgery is often lifesaving surgery to treat an urgent medical need. It’s typically performed without any advance planning.
Nonelective Surgery Delivery
The process of having nonelective surgery moves quickly.
Once the care team has assessed and stabilized the individual, diagnostic tests, such as an X-ray, CT (computed tomography) scan, or lab work may be ordered to confirm the need for surgery. The person is then prepared for the surgery.
Data suggests that more than 3 million patients in the United States are admitted to the hospital for emergency general surgery (excluding heart and trauma-related surgery) each year.
For people who have access to health insurance, many plans cover a solid portion of surgical costs for procedures that are determined to bemedically necessaryor lifesaving.The exact amount that an insurer will contribute depends on several factors, such as your health plan, the type of procedure, the amount of care needed, and the length of your hospital stay.
What can be challenging about nonelective surgery is that the individual often doesn’t have a choice about the surgeon or location, as it’s typically necessary to use the closest hospital that’s equipped to perform the surgery.
Data shows that emergency surgery typically has higher costs than elective surgery.
Which Treatment Is Best for You?
Both elective and nonelective surgeries are important, but they serve different purposes.
If the goal of the surgery is to:
Hospitals typically rank or prioritize surgeries based on the urgency of the patient’s health condition.
Whether elective or nonelective surgery is best for your individual situation will depend on the reason behind the procedure. A healthcare provider will be able to determine which is most appropriate.
Can Elective and Nonelective Surgery Be Used Together?
It’s possible that some people may require both elective and nonelective surgery to care for the same medical condition, such as a serious illness or traumatic injury.
Sometimes, it can takeseveral surgeriesto correct an issue. For example, inlife-threatening situations, an individual may need to have several nonelective surgeries at first. Later, elective surgery may be recommended to further correct the problem.
Note that each time you undergo surgery, there is a chance for complications. Your surgeon and healthcare provider will be able to answer your questions about potential risks, recovery times, and more.
Summary
Elective surgery is one that can be planned in advance or postponed if needed, while nonelective (emergency) surgery is performed immediately because of an urgent or life-threatening medical condition. Both types of surgery are important and can be medically necessary. Your healthcare provider will be able to discuss the circumstances around whether the surgery needs to be performed now or if it can be scheduled later.
A Word From Verywell
It’s difficult to learn that you need to have surgery—whether it’s elective or nonelective. While all surgeries come withpotential risks, know that you’re not alone, as roughly 40 million to 50 million surgeries are performed in the United States each year.
If you have questions, talk to your healthcare provider. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also offers a helpful patient-safety resource with information about how to prepare yourself for surgery.
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20 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Johns Hopkins Medicine.Types of surgery.American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.What to do if your orthopaedic surgery is postponed.Nemours Children’s Health.Elective surgery.American College of Surgeons.Elective surgery and COVID-19.Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.CMS adult elective surgery and procedures recommendations.Prin M, Guglielminotti J, Mtalimanja O, Li G, Charles A.Emergency-to-elective surgery ratio: A global indicator of access to surgical care.World J Surg. 2018 Jul;42(7):1971-1980. doi: 10.1007/s00268-017-4415-7. PMID: 29270649.Harvard Health Publishing.What to do when elective surgery is postponed.Childers CP, Maggard-Gibbons M.Understanding costs of care in the operating room.JAMA Surg. 2018;153(4):e176233. doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2017.6233American College of Surgeons.Statement on the rationale for emergency surgical call.MaineHealth.Emergency surgery.Scott JW, Olufajo OA, Brat GA, et al.Use of national burden to define operative emergency general surgery.JAMA Surg.2016;151(6):e160480. doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2016.0480Havens JM, Peetz AB, Do WS, et al.The excess morbidity and mortality of emergency general surgery.J Trauma Acute Care Surg.2015;78(2):306–311. doi: 10.1097/TA.0000000000000517Childers CP, Maggard-gibbons M.Understanding costs of care in the operating room.JAMA Surg. 2018;153(4):e176233. doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2017.6233MedlinePlus.Understanding your hospital bill.Haider AH, Obirieze A, Velopulos CG, Richard P, Latif A, Scott VK, Zogg CK, Haut ER, Efron DT, Cornwell EE 3rd, MacKenzie EJ, Gaskin DJ.Incremental cost of emergency versus elective surgery.Ann Surg.2015 Aug;262(2):260-6. doi: 10.1097/SLA.0000000000001080.American College of Surgeons.COVID-19 guidelines for triage of emergency general surgery patients.MedlinePlus.Surgery.American Medical Association.COVID-19 and elective surgeries: 4 key answers for your patients.MedlinePlus.Getting yourself healthy before surgery.Dobson G.Trauma of major surgery: A global problem that is not going away.Int J Surg.2020 Sep;81:47–54. doi:10.1016/j.ijsu.2020.07.017.
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Johns Hopkins Medicine.Types of surgery.American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.What to do if your orthopaedic surgery is postponed.Nemours Children’s Health.Elective surgery.American College of Surgeons.Elective surgery and COVID-19.Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.CMS adult elective surgery and procedures recommendations.Prin M, Guglielminotti J, Mtalimanja O, Li G, Charles A.Emergency-to-elective surgery ratio: A global indicator of access to surgical care.World J Surg. 2018 Jul;42(7):1971-1980. doi: 10.1007/s00268-017-4415-7. PMID: 29270649.Harvard Health Publishing.What to do when elective surgery is postponed.Childers CP, Maggard-Gibbons M.Understanding costs of care in the operating room.JAMA Surg. 2018;153(4):e176233. doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2017.6233American College of Surgeons.Statement on the rationale for emergency surgical call.MaineHealth.Emergency surgery.Scott JW, Olufajo OA, Brat GA, et al.Use of national burden to define operative emergency general surgery.JAMA Surg.2016;151(6):e160480. doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2016.0480Havens JM, Peetz AB, Do WS, et al.The excess morbidity and mortality of emergency general surgery.J Trauma Acute Care Surg.2015;78(2):306–311. doi: 10.1097/TA.0000000000000517Childers CP, Maggard-gibbons M.Understanding costs of care in the operating room.JAMA Surg. 2018;153(4):e176233. doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2017.6233MedlinePlus.Understanding your hospital bill.Haider AH, Obirieze A, Velopulos CG, Richard P, Latif A, Scott VK, Zogg CK, Haut ER, Efron DT, Cornwell EE 3rd, MacKenzie EJ, Gaskin DJ.Incremental cost of emergency versus elective surgery.Ann Surg.2015 Aug;262(2):260-6. doi: 10.1097/SLA.0000000000001080.American College of Surgeons.COVID-19 guidelines for triage of emergency general surgery patients.MedlinePlus.Surgery.American Medical Association.COVID-19 and elective surgeries: 4 key answers for your patients.MedlinePlus.Getting yourself healthy before surgery.Dobson G.Trauma of major surgery: A global problem that is not going away.Int J Surg.2020 Sep;81:47–54. doi:10.1016/j.ijsu.2020.07.017.
Johns Hopkins Medicine.Types of surgery.
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.What to do if your orthopaedic surgery is postponed.
Nemours Children’s Health.Elective surgery.
American College of Surgeons.Elective surgery and COVID-19.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.CMS adult elective surgery and procedures recommendations.
Prin M, Guglielminotti J, Mtalimanja O, Li G, Charles A.Emergency-to-elective surgery ratio: A global indicator of access to surgical care.World J Surg. 2018 Jul;42(7):1971-1980. doi: 10.1007/s00268-017-4415-7. PMID: 29270649.
Harvard Health Publishing.What to do when elective surgery is postponed.
Childers CP, Maggard-Gibbons M.Understanding costs of care in the operating room.JAMA Surg. 2018;153(4):e176233. doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2017.6233
American College of Surgeons.Statement on the rationale for emergency surgical call.
MaineHealth.Emergency surgery.
Scott JW, Olufajo OA, Brat GA, et al.Use of national burden to define operative emergency general surgery.JAMA Surg.2016;151(6):e160480. doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2016.0480
Havens JM, Peetz AB, Do WS, et al.The excess morbidity and mortality of emergency general surgery.J Trauma Acute Care Surg.2015;78(2):306–311. doi: 10.1097/TA.0000000000000517
Childers CP, Maggard-gibbons M.Understanding costs of care in the operating room.JAMA Surg. 2018;153(4):e176233. doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2017.6233
MedlinePlus.Understanding your hospital bill.
Haider AH, Obirieze A, Velopulos CG, Richard P, Latif A, Scott VK, Zogg CK, Haut ER, Efron DT, Cornwell EE 3rd, MacKenzie EJ, Gaskin DJ.Incremental cost of emergency versus elective surgery.Ann Surg.2015 Aug;262(2):260-6. doi: 10.1097/SLA.0000000000001080.
American College of Surgeons.COVID-19 guidelines for triage of emergency general surgery patients.
MedlinePlus.Surgery.
American Medical Association.COVID-19 and elective surgeries: 4 key answers for your patients.
MedlinePlus.Getting yourself healthy before surgery.
Dobson G.Trauma of major surgery: A global problem that is not going away.Int J Surg.2020 Sep;81:47–54. doi:10.1016/j.ijsu.2020.07.017.
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