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Published on: October 17, 2025
Surgical time independently affected by surgical team size
Maria A Cassera1, Bin Zheng, Danny V Martinec
1Minimally Invasive Surgery Program, Legacy Health System, 1040 NW 22nd Ave., Suite 560, Portland, OR 97210, USA.
Background:
Team size and composition provide essential data for the study of operating room (OR) efficiency.
Methods:
Laparoscopic procedures between July 2005 and July 2007 were reviewed retrospectively to record the number of OR personnel and the procedure time (PT).
Results:
Of 399 procedures reviewed, 360 cases with complete data were analyzed. The average PT was 148 minutes. A mean of 8 different team members (range, 4-15) were involved. Surgeons and anesthesiologists stayed constant whereas the OR nurses were replaced more than once per procedure (mean, 4 nurses/procedure; range, 2-11). Multiple regression analysis revealed that both complexity of surgery and team size affected the PT significantly. When procedure complexity and patient condition were held constant, we found that adding 1 individual to a team predicted a 15.4-minutes increase in PT.
Conclusions:
The surgical team is a dynamic system with a large amount of member turnover. Efforts to improve OR efficiency should focus on decreasing surgical team size, limiting staff turnover, and enhancing communication between team members.
