‘Don’t get your operation on a Thursday,’ this hospital expert warned. Here’s his plan to lower costs and save lives.

“A hospital is no place to be sick,” pioneering Hollywood producer and film-studio mogul Samuel Goldwyn is credited with saying. Of course, if you need hospitalization, you go. And if you’re scheduling a surgical procedure, the No. 1 question you want to ask is, “Which day?”

Every year, 15 million Americans have some type of surgery, according to the American College of Surgeons. Many U.S. hospitals are crowded, and delays in getting a procedure and shortages of post-operation beds are common. Such setbacks are costly for hospitals, exhausting for doctors and nurses, and, for some patients, they’re deadly.