Predicting cataract surgery time based on preoperative risk assessment.

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Operating room (OR) time is a significant cost factor in healthcare.
• Efficient scheduling of OR time is crucial for cost reduction and improved patient throughput.
• Predicting individual surgery duration can enhance OR resource management.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the utility of a Preoperative Risk Parameter Score (PORS) system in predicting cataract surgery duration.
• To determine if PORS can aid in optimizing OR scheduling and reducing costs.

Main Methods:

• Developed dedicated software integrating known cataract surgery risk factors.
• Assigned PORS to 153 patients, categorizing them into low-risk (PORS ≤ 2) and high-risk (PORS > 5) groups.
• Compared surgery durations between groups using Student t test and analyzed the correlation between PORS and OR time via linear regression.

Main Results:

• High PORS group patients had significantly longer surgery times (37.6 min) compared to the low PORS group (19.6 min) (p<0.001).
• PORS positively correlated with surgery duration (r = 0.30, p<0.001).
• Each 1-point increase in PORS added 2.2 to 3.3 minutes to OR time, and outliers had more than double the risk score of average cases.

Conclusions:

• The PORS system is a valuable tool for predicting individual cataract surgery time.
• Implementing PORS can lead to more accurate OR scheduling and potentially reduce healthcare costs.