The EPIC SANDPO lettering system and decreased operating room efficiency

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Surgical Operations
• Patient Safety Systems

Background:

• A new preoperative system, SANDPO (Surgeons, Anaesthetists, Nursing staff, Documents, Patient consent/identification, Operating Room staff verifications), was implemented to enhance patient safety and operating room turnover time.
• The system was concurrently introduced in the main operating room and a new outpatient surgical area (Specialty Care Building).

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of the SANDPO system on operating room efficiency, specifically measuring turnover time.

Main Methods:

• Comparative analysis of pre- and post-implementation data for operating room turnover time.
• Data collected from the Main Operating Room (Oct 2021-Aug 2023) and Specialty Care Operating Rooms (Sep 2022-Aug 2023).

Main Results:

• Turnover time increased by 24.1% in the main operating room post-SANDPO implementation.
• Specialty Care Operating Rooms demonstrated significantly lower turnover times compared to the main operating room.
• Adult cases experienced greater delays than pediatric cases, and simple setup cases showed the most substantial increases in turnover time.

Conclusions:

• Despite its intended purpose of enhancing safety, the SANDPO system unexpectedly led to a significant decrease in overall operating room efficiency.
• The findings suggest a need to re-evaluate the SANDPO system's workflow and implementation to address the negative impact on turnover time.