Effect of compensation and patient scheduling on OR labor costs

To determine whether to accept a contract to provide additional surgical cases, OR managers must determine the incremental costs of caring for the new patients. The expected profitability of the contract can be computed by subtracting the incremental costs from the revenue. For surgical procedures, the incremental costs of OR labor significantly depend on how employees are paid (e.g., part-time versus full-time). If a surgical suite employs full-time staff members, incremental labor costs also are affected by how the day and time of patients' cases are selected (e.g., whether new cases are scheduled weeks in advance by the surgeon and the patient, or are performed on short notice based on the discretion of the surgical suite). This article explains how to estimate the incremental costs of staffing an OR for a case and discusses the use of internet-based online exchanges to match demand for OR time for additional cases to available unused OR capacity in variety of surgical suites.