Scheduling and Vendor Consistency Improves Turnover Time Efficiency in Total Joint Arthroplasty

Area of Science:

• Orthopedic Surgery
• Operating Room Management
• Healthcare Efficiency

Background:

• Operating room (OR) efficiency is crucial for hospitals, impacting patient care and staff morale.
• Reducing turnover time (TOT) is a key strategy for enhancing OR efficiency.
• This study investigates the impact of case type, implant vendor, and laterality on TOT.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the influence of changing case type, implant vendor, and laterality on operative room turnover time (TOT).
• To identify factors that significantly affect efficiency in arthroplasty procedures.
• To provide data-driven recommendations for optimizing OR workflow.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of 444 turnovers for primary arthroplasty cases over 7 months.
• Involved same-surgeon turnovers in dedicated, overlapping rooms.
• Statistical analysis included linear regression, multivariate regression, and t-tests to assess the impact of case type, vendor, and laterality on TOT.

Main Results:

• Changing case type increased TOT by 2.4 minutes (P=.004); changing vendors increased TOT by 2.9 minutes (P=.002).
• Laterality did not significantly affect TOT (P=.229).
• Consistent case type and vendor resulted in significantly lower TOT (mean 38.2 min) compared to varying them (mean 41.4 min).

Conclusions:

• Maintaining consistent case type and implant vendor synergistically reduces TOT in arthroplasty ORs.
• Changes in vendor representatives independently predicted increased TOT, likely due to workflow disruption.
• Optimizing OR efficiency involves standardizing case type and vendor selection.