The Role of the Robotics Coordinator: Improving Efficiency in a Robotic Surgery Program

An increase in the number of surgical robots from four to nine at a large academic medical center in the northeastern United States created several challenges for personnel to keep up with the increased robotic surgical volume and remain efficient. To facilitate improvements, the robotic steering committee at the facility created a full-time robotics coordinator position. After joining the steering committee, the new coordinator performed a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis to identify specific goals for process improvement; these included improvements to procedure scheduling, OR layouts, surgeon preference cards, point-of-care supply storage, team communication, and new hire orientation and competency. This article discusses the role of a robotics program coordinator and how this coordinator used strategic management tools and techniques, including lean principles, to streamline processes, maximize efficiency, and decrease operational variances across the robotic surgery program at this institution.