A Coordinated Patient Transport System for ICU Patients Requiring Surgery: Impact on Operating Room Efficiency and...

Transfer of intensive care unit (ICU) patients to the operating room (OR) is a resource-intensive, time-consuming process that often results in patient throughput inefficiencies, deficiencies in information transfer, and suboptimal nurse to patient ratios. This study evaluates the implementation of a coordinated patient transport system (CPTS) designed to address these issues.

Using data from 1,557 patient transfers covering the 2006-2010 period, interrupted time series and before and after designs were used to analyze the effect of implementing a CPTS at Mayo Clinic, Rochester.

Using a segmented regression for the interrupted time series, on-time OR start time deviations were found to be significantly lower after the implementation of CPTS (p < .0001). The implementation resulted in a fourfold improvement in on-time OR starts (p < .01) while significantly reducing idle OR time (p < .01).

A coordinated patient transfer process for moving patient from ICUs to ORs can significantly improve OR efficiency, reduce nonvalue added time, and ensure quality of care by preserving appropriate care provider to patient ratios.