A Quality Improvement Study Designed to Optimize Scheduling Geographic/Site Preferences Among Anesthesia...

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Health Informatics
• Anesthesiology

Background:

• Anesthesia professional scheduling impacts job satisfaction and work-life balance.
• Manual scheduling systems can lead to suboptimal placement of anesthesia professionals.
• Improving workplace location choice is a key factor in professional retention.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of an electronic decision support tool on anesthesia professionals receiving their first-choice workplace location.
• To assess the effectiveness of a new scheduling software in a multi-site healthcare system.
• To determine if technology can enhance geographic/site choice satisfaction for anesthesia professionals.

Main Methods:

• A quality improvement pilot study design was employed.
• An electronic decision support tool was implemented for anesthesia-in-charge schedulers across four hospitals and two surgical centers.
• Interrupted time series Poisson regression analyzed 14-week pre- and post-implementation data, measuring changes in the percentage of first-choice location selections.

Main Results:

• The implementation of the electronic decision support tool resulted in a statistically significant increase in anesthesia professionals receiving their first-choice workplace location (P<0.0001).
• A significant level change and slope change were observed post-intervention.
• The intervention demonstrated both statistical and clinical significance in improving location selection outcomes.

Conclusions:

• The electronic decision support scheduling tool effectively increased the percentage of anesthesia professionals placed in their desired workplace locations.
• This technology-driven approach shows promise for enhancing anesthesia professional satisfaction and work-life balance.
• Further research is warranted to explore the broader implications of this tool on professional well-being and retention.