Morning emergency operating list: effects of implementation

Area of Science:

• General Surgery
• Healthcare Management
• Surgical Workflow Optimization

Background:

• Emergency surgical caseloads often extend beyond standard working hours.
• Late-night surgeries can impact resident and staff well-being and resource allocation.
• Optimizing surgical scheduling is crucial for efficient hospital operations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of a morning emergency list on general surgery caseload distribution.
• To assess changes in after-midnight surgical procedures following the list's implementation.
• To determine the effectiveness of scheduled morning emergency lists in reducing nighttime surgical workload.

Main Methods:

• A regular morning emergency list for general surgery was introduced.
• Surgical caseload data, specifically procedures performed between midnight and 0800, were analyzed before and after implementation.
• Data were compared immediately after inception and after 1 year.

Main Results:

• The proportion of emergency surgical procedures performed between midnight and 0800 decreased from 32% (1989) to 11% (1991).
• The frequency of nights with after-midnight emergency surgery dropped from 56% to 30% over the study period.
• Following the morning list adoption, 70% of 'duty' nights had no surgery after midnight.

Conclusions:

• A regular morning emergency list effectively reduces the number of after-midnight general surgery procedures.
• This scheduling change leads to a more concentrated surgical workload during daytime hours.
• The findings support the adoption of morning emergency lists for improved surgical workflow and resource management.