Effect of Individual Surgeons and Anesthesiologists on Operating Room Time

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Operations Research
• Surgical Workflow Optimization
• Anesthesiology Practice Analysis

Background:

• Operating room (OR) time variability leads to inefficient resource utilization.
• Surgeon-specific factors are considered a primary driver of OR time variance for procedures.
• Quantifying inter-individual variability is crucial for improving OR scheduling.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify the variability in operating room (OR) time attributed to individual surgeons and anesthesiologists.
• To assess the predictive value of incorporating surgeon and anesthesiologist data into OR time models.
• To estimate the potential reduction in OR overtime and idle time through personalized OR time prediction.

Main Methods:

• Linear mixed-effects models were employed to analyze OR data from 16,480 general surgery cases.
• Variability in OR time was partitioned among procedure type, surgeon identity, and anesthesiologist identity.
• The impact of individual-level modeling on predicting OR time and reducing inefficiencies was evaluated.

Main Results:

• Surgeons accounted for 2.9% of OR time variability; anesthesiologists accounted for only 0.1%.
• Individual surgeon and anesthesiologist incorporation reduced predicted overtime by 1.8 minutes and idle time by 3.0 minutes per case.
• These reductions represent a 10.5% decrease in overtime and a 17.0% decrease in idle time.

Conclusions:

• Surgeon-related OR time variability is minor compared to procedure type.
• Anesthesiologist contributions to OR time variability are negligible.
• While predictive models improve precision, the practical impact on OR scheduling is likely marginal.