elective

1. (US health care system, technical) Scheduled and nonemergent (regardless of whether necessary or unnecessary and whether minor or serious).Examples: "It was very confusing hearing my cancer surgery being classified as "elective surgery". Am I "electing" to live rather than die?"; "The vast majority of surgical procedures are considered elective, which means they can be scheduled in advance. […] doctors warned that thousands of patients were suffering as a result of delayed elective procedures such as hernia repair and spinal fusion. […] Nitin Yerram, director of urological oncology at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, said most cancer surgeries are considered elective, a term that's often misunderstood. "We tend to think more of tummy tucks and cosmetic surgery," Yerram said. "However, all ‘elective’ means is it's a scheduled surgery with work-up done before that. The opposite of elective is emergent or trauma situation, such as a car crash, where it's not a scheduled procedure.""Antonyms: emergent, unscheduled