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[How much is the workload of surgeons in Scandinavia?]
J Haffner1, F Moesgaard, A Leppäniemi
1Kirurgisk avdeling, Buskerud sentralsykehus, Drammen.
Nordisk Medicin
|January 23, 1999
Summary
Surgical activity in Nordic countries is low, with surgeons performing 90-240 operations annually. This limited surgical volume may hinder skill maintenance and training, suggesting a need for workload redistribution.
Area of Science:
- Surgical training and workforce management
- Healthcare operations research
Context:
- Data from the Scandinavian Surgical Society's Biannual General Meeting in 1996.
- Analysis of surgical workload across clinics of varying sizes in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.
Purpose:
- To evaluate the mean number of operations performed per surgeon and associated operating time.
- To assess the sufficiency of current operative activity for surgical training and skill maintenance.
Summary:
- Mean annual operations per surgeon ranged from 90 to 240, equating to 2.6-8.5 hours of actual operating time.
- These figures exclude crucial activities like assisting, endoscopies, diagnostics, outpatient procedures, and pre/post-operative care.
- The observed operative activity levels are considered insufficient for effective surgical training and skill preservation.
Impact:
- Highlights a potential deficit in surgical training and skill maintenance due to low operative volumes.
- Suggests that reallocating non-surgical tasks to other hospital staff could increase surgeons' operative time.
- Proposes that optimizing workload distribution may reduce overall surgeon requirements and improve surgical practice.
