Development and clinical application of an Intelligent Operating Room Scheduling System

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Health Informatics
• Surgical Operations

Background:

• Traditional operating room (OR) scheduling faces challenges including excessive time, inaccurate subspecialty matching, and unfair performance compensation.
• Inefficiencies in OR scheduling can lead to suboptimal resource utilization and decreased staff satisfaction.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate an Intelligent Operating Room Scheduling System (IORSS) integrated with a hospital information system (HIS).
• To address and improve upon the inefficiencies of traditional OR scheduling processes.

Main Methods:

• System requirements were gathered through literature review, interviews, and expert panels.
• An HIS-based IORSS was developed using agile methodology, featuring modules for room assignment, nurse subspecialty matching, and attendance management.
• A quasi-experimental study compared manual scheduling (control) with IORSS-assisted scheduling (experimental) to assess clinical effects.

Main Results:

• Operating room scheduling time decreased significantly from 7.0 ± 1.2 hours to 2.0 ± 0.5 hours (P < 0.01).
• Subspecialty matching accuracy improved from 78.6% to 94.3% (P < 0.01).
• Satisfaction with performance distribution fairness increased from 61.5% to 88.3% (P < 0.05).

Conclusions:

• The HIS-based IORSS effectively reduces scheduling time, enhances nurse-to-surgical demand matching, and improves satisfaction with performance fairness.
• The developed system demonstrates significant potential for boosting operating room resource utilization.
• The IORSS is deemed ready for broader clinical adoption to optimize surgical scheduling processes.