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Updated: Feb 28, 2026
Author Spotlight: A Multi-Depth Porcine Model for Comprehensive Study of Burn Injuries and Healing Processes
Published on: February 23, 2024
Operating efficiency of an emergency Burns theatre: An eight month analysis
Arvind Mohan1, Christopher Lutterodt1, Jorge Leon-Villapalos1
1Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, 369 Fulham Road, Chelsea, London SW10 9NH, United Kingdom.
Background:
The efficient use of operating theatres is important to insure optimum cost-benefit for the hospital. We used the emergency Burns theatre as a model to assess theatre efficiency at our institution.
Methods:
Data was collected retrospectively on every operation performed in the Burns theatre between 01/04/15 and 30/11/15. Each component of the operating theatre process was considered and integrated to calculate values for surgical/anaesthetic time, changeover time and ultimately theatre efficiency.
Results:
A total of 426 operations were carried out over 887h of allocated theatre time (ATT). Actual operating time represented 67.7%, anaesthetic time 8.8% and changeover time 14.2% of ATT. The average changeover time between patients was 30.1min. Lists started on average 27.7min late each day. There were a total of 5.8h of overruns and 9.6h of no useful activity. Operating theatre efficiency was 69.3% for the 8 month period.
Conclusion:
Our study highlights areas where theatre efficiency can be improved. We suggest various strategies to improve this that may be applied universally.
