Greater Familiarity Between Surgeon and Operating Room-Allied Health Staff Is Associated With Shorter Case Duration-A...

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Surgical Operations Management
• Healthcare Quality Improvement

Background:

• Operating room (OR) efficiency significantly impacts hospital finances and patient outcomes.
• Surgeon-staff familiarity is a key factor for optimizing OR processes and improving quality.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between surgeon-staff familiarity and the duration of surgical operations.
• To quantify the impact of team experience on operating room efficiency.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective cohort study of 257,645 operations across 25 specialties in four academic hospitals (July 2019 - December 2023).
• Familiarity defined as median staff experience (scrub technicians, circulating nurses) with the surgeon in the prior 180 days.
• Primary outcome: actual case length being at least 10% shorter than scheduled; secondary outcome: difference between observed and expected case length.

Main Results:

• Higher surgeon-staff familiarity correlated with a greater likelihood of shorter case lengths (Observed:Expected ratio 1.16 for high/high vs. 0.90 for low/low familiarity).
• Increased familiarity resulted in cases being 8.7% shorter than scheduled compared to less familiar teams (P < 0.001).
• Shorter surgical times (cut-to-close) were observed in operations with higher team familiarity for the four most common case types.

Conclusions:

• Greater recent experience between surgeons and their allied health staff (scrub technicians, circulating nurses) enhances operational efficiency.
• Surgical team familiarity is a critical element for achieving operational and clinical excellence in the OR.