Utilization of operating room time in a cancer hospital

Appropriate usage of operating room (OR) time can improve efficiency of utilization of resources and help to decrease surgical waiting lists.

This study was conducted to evaluate the pattern of usage of OR time in a tertiary referral cancer hospital.

This was a prospective audit carried out over 2 months in 11 major ORs in a cancer hospital.

OR anesthesiologists filled a standard form for all patients undergoing elective surgery and documented the following times: entry into OR, start of anesthesia, handover to surgeon, incision, start of reversal, end of anesthesia, and shifting out of patient.

Median time utilized for various OR processes was calculated.

An average of two surgeries were performed per OR session (828 surgeries in 407 OR sessions). Anesthesia and surgery-related processes contributed to 17% and 79%, respectively, of total OR time, with turnover time between cases accounting for the remaining 4%. Fifteen percent (60 out of 407) OR sessions started more than 10 min later than the planned start time, and 17% (70 of 407) of OR sessions ended more than 2 h after the scheduled finish time. An anesthesia procedure room was utilized in only 15% of cases where it could potentially have been used.

This audit identified patterns of OR usage in a cancer hospital and helped to detect areas of inefficient utilization. Anesthesia-related processes contributed to 17% of the total OR time.