Are your operating rooms ‘efficient’?
Getting the right case in the right room at the right time is the goal for every OR director. Often, though, defining how well the OR suite runs depends on whom you ask. The question, “Are my ORs...
View ArticleWays to break loose from OR holds
OR holds slow the entire hospital’s throughput. “What happens in the OR doesn’t stay in the OR—it affects the whole system,” says Christy Dempsey, RN, MBA, CNOR, senior vice president of clinical...
View ArticleSet the clock for OR on-time starts
Achieving on-time starts can be elusive for OR leaders, including those at Memorial University Medical Center (MUMC) in Savannah, Georgia. Faced with a dismal 27% on-time starts for the first cases of...
View ArticleThe research on OR time allocation
What criteria should be used to make decisions about adjusting block time? Traditionally, OR committees have used surgeons’ utilization of blocks. But OR utilization isn’t the best way to make this...
View ArticleFine-tuning the block schedule? Now could be the right time
If you want to fine-tune the block schedule, now may be the time. A silver lining of the recession is that surgeons and staff may be more accepting of changes to the schedule than they might be...
View ArticleA toolkit for managing block scheduling
HCA Inc, the national health care company, has developed a block scheduling toolkit for its 165 hospitals. The toolkit includes decision points, algorithms for managing blocks, and sample policies....
View ArticleEffective block scheduling rests on fair policies, active management
Second in a series on OR performance. Performing more cases with the same OR capacity and personnel—and having more satisfied surgeons, anesthesia providers, and staff. That may sound like utopia, but...
View ArticleFlipping ORs: Does this common practice make business sense?
Flipping, double teaming, running ORs back-to-back. These are a few terms for the practice of providing multiple ORs for particular surgeons. The practice is widespread. A show of hands during a...
View ArticleTurnover? Focus on everything else
If your OR wants to improve on-time first-case starts and turnover time—focus on everything else. That’s the advice of Integris Southwest Medical Center in Oklahoma City, recently recognized as a...
View ArticleBalancing staff productivity with open OR time
With hospitals under ever greater economic pressure, perioperative managers are expected to hew closely to staffing productivity targets, meaning they must match staffing as closely as possible to the...
View ArticleAn electronic path for streamlining scheduling
An electronic form surgeons’ offices use to place scheduling orders has streamlined the preoperative process and sharply reduced case cancellations for a Chicago-area hospital. Cancellations are down...
View ArticleSafer surgery: Is your scheduling process as accurate is it could be?
Ten elements of safer surgery. Second in a series. Much of the effort to ensure correct-site surgery focuses on preoperative verification. But scheduling is where it all begins. Capturing complete and...
View ArticleThe right strategies can help increase OR utilization
OR Business Performance is a series intended to help OR managers and directors improve the success of their business. How do you improve an OR’s financial performance? Last month’s column focused on...
View ArticleHigh labor expenses? Better staffing and scheduling can cut costs
OR Business Performance is a series intended to help OR managers and directors improve the success of their business. The OR labor budget usually takes a back seat to supplies and equipment. But labor...
View ArticleTracking tool streamlines scheduling, enhances communication with surgeons’...
Sacred Heart Medical Center RiverBend in Springfield, Oregon, began OR optimization efforts soon after moving to a new facility in August 2008. Because of the US economic downturn around that same...
View ArticleSystematic approach to scheduling smoothes out the daily wrinkles
In many surgery departments, schedule management is a daily struggle. Staff work hard to manage case requests, juggle resources, and respond to changes, but errors, inefficiencies, and general...
View ArticleUtilization soars after block schedule is up and running
Block scheduling can be one of the most contentious issues that OR leaders face, but its effectiveness as an efficiency—and therefore cost management—tool makes it worth pursuing. Implementing block...
View ArticleTake time to make time: Involve your team in closing schedule gaps
Turnover time and first case on-time starts are a common problem in most ORs, so leaders are always seeking ideas for improvement. OR Manager recently spoke with two leaders who have had remarkable...
View ArticleNew schedule adds efficiency, bolsters caseload
Theoretical advantages exist for both block and nonblock scheduling. Facilities with enough space and staff may be able to schedule cases on the basis of patient and surgeon convenience, but that...
View ArticleData analytics improve odds for predicting surgical case volume
Recommendations emerging from a data analytics project have helped OR leaders at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, better anticipate daily surgical case volume and share...
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