Improving on-time surgical starts in an operating room

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Pediatric Surgery
• Hospital Operations

Background:

• Operating rooms represent a significant hospital expense.
• Hospitals aim to optimize operating room efficiency.
• This study evaluated an initiative to improve operating room punctuality in a pediatric academic setting.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the impact of a specific initiative on improving on-time operating room starts.
• To identify and address barriers to timely surgical procedures in a pediatric hospital.

Main Methods:

• An 8-step organizational transformation approach was employed.
• A multidisciplinary team defined on-time starts and identified delay causes.
• Key interventions included enhancing same-day admissions, daily staff huddles, and performance feedback.

Main Results:

• Common delays stemmed from surgeon/anesthesiologist unavailability and patient non-readiness.
• The percentage of on-time operating room starts (patient in room) rose from approximately 6% to 60%.
• This improvement was observed over a 9-month implementation period.

Conclusions:

• A targeted, multifaceted, and multidisciplinary strategy can effectively enhance operating room punctuality.
• Implementing such an approach can lead to substantial improvements in pediatric surgical scheduling.
• Optimizing operating room start times contributes to overall hospital efficiency.