Optimizing the Efficiency of Operating Room by Extending the Working Hours during Evening and Weekends

Due to high demand and limited infrastructural capacity, the performance of the operating room at our facility was very complaisant which resulted in high waiting time for elective surgery and accumulation of cases waiting for surgery Aim: To improve the efficiency of operating room by expanding the surgical volume and thereby improve the access to elective surgical services.

We introduced an innovative OR scheduling whereby we added extra slots each for the evening and weekends. The staff working during those hours were arranged for their shifts accordingly with flexibility in their off-hour during weekdays and weekends.

During full year 2024, a total of 1488 surgeries were conducted during extended OR schedule at our hospital, which comprised of about 53% cases (702/1488) conducted during evening and 64% (786/1488) during weekends. The cases conducted during extended hours contributed to 25% of overall elective routine cases performed. The highest proportion was contributed by ophthalmology (39%) followed by general surgery (28%) and orthopedic surgery (16%). While all the cases under ophthalmology were performed during weekends, majority of orthopedic cases were conducted during evening time. We noted 27% improvement in the waiting time for elective surgical admissions.

Redesigning the traditional working hours proved to utilize the available infrastructure and manpower in a better way, whereby we observed a huge expansion in the surgical volume.