Improving Performance Measures With Perioperative Analytics

Perioperative nurses and leadership teams across the country strive to improve outcomes, increase operational efficiency, and achieve performance improvement on key measures in the perioperative department. In today's changing health care environment, which involves increasing pressure to do more with less, it is essential for perioperative leaders to understand analytics and how to use analytics to identify, plan, and implement improvement initiatives that will provide the greatest value. This article examines key performance indicators in the OR, barriers to change, and the strategies and processes that perioperative leaders can use to achieve efficiency and performance improvement goals. It also provides an example of a tactical approach to one of the OR's greatest challenges: measuring and improving block utilization.