Productivity benchmarks for operative service units

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Health Informatics
• Operations Research

Background:

• Strategic and tactical decision-making for operative processes requires accessible, reliable information.
• Benchmarking is essential for evaluating and improving hospital operational efficiency.
• A Finnish university hospital sought to enhance its data analysis capabilities for operative services.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an analysis tool for generating key performance metrics for operative units.
• To benchmark operative service units and surgical units within a hospital setting.
• To provide data-driven insights for managing operating room (OR) capacity and costs.

Main Methods:

• Development of a custom analysis tool utilizing data from a resource management system.
• Integration of data from an in-house cost-reporting database.
• Collection and analysis of key metrics for operative and surgical units from 2013-2014.

Main Results:

• Productivity metrics (total costs per total hours) ranged from 658 to 957 €/h.
• Resource utilization at the service unit level was between 66% and 74%.
• Cost variations were observed, with 24/7 operations showing higher costs than standard shifts.

Conclusions:

• The developed tool offers hospital management an improved overview of operative service units and surgical processes.
• Operating costs are influenced by on-call duties, unit size, and surgical complexity.
• The findings support informed mid- to long-term decisions regarding OR capacity management.