Early endocrine attending surgeon presence increases operating room efficiency.

Area of Science:

• Surgery
• Healthcare Management
• Medical Economics

Background:

• Operating room (OR) preparation protocols vary, impacting surgical efficiency.
• Inconsistent team members and trainees can delay procedures requiring precise preoperative setup.
• Surgeon leadership and early presence may streamline OR starts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To test the hypothesis that early attending surgeon presence in the OR expedites surgery start time.
• To evaluate the impact of early attending presence on surgical efficiency and cost savings.

Main Methods:

• Prospective data collection in endocrine surgery cases at an urban teaching hospital.
• Recording of time points in minutes, with OR time cost calculated at $54/min.
• Classifying patients based on whether they were in the OR ≤10 min or >10 min before attending surgeon arrival.

Main Results:

• A total of 227 endocrine surgery cases were analyzed.
• Procedures with patients in the OR ≤10 min before attending arrival started significantly sooner (40±11 min vs. 63±19 min, P<0.01).
• Early attending presence resulted in substantial cost savings, ranging from $1076 to $2416 per case, depending on the procedure type.

Conclusions:

• Early attending surgeon presence in the OR shortens the time to incision.
• This strategy improves efficiency and generates significant cost savings, particularly in settings with non-consistent surgical teams.
• For parathyroid and adrenal surgeries, early attending presence does not necessitate additional surgeon time in the OR.