Allocation scheduling leads to optimum utilization of operation theater time

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Surgical Operations
• Hospital Administration

Background:

• Surgical cancellations are common due to clinical and managerial issues.
• This study addresses time overruns leading to cancellations in tertiary care hospitals.
• Ophthalmology surgical data from a 5-year period was utilized.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a scheduling strategy to mitigate time overruns and subsequent surgical cancellations.
• To optimize operating room (OR) utilization through improved case allocation.
• To enhance the efficiency of surgical scheduling processes.

Main Methods:

• Observational and descriptive study design.
• Collected surgical times for 582 ophthalmic surgeries.
• Utilized LEKIN software for operating room allocation and scheduling.

Main Results:

• Observed time overruns of 2-6 hours in some units and significant idle OR time (19% daily average).
• Reallocation using LEKIN software accommodated all planned cases.
• Despite accommodating all cases, an average of 17% of total OR time remained idle.

Conclusions:

• Daily case planning and scheduling using allocation models can optimize OR utilization.
• Implementing simple algorithms for case allocation can address time overruns.
• Effective scheduling strategies can significantly reduce surgery-related cancellations.