Efficiency of the operating room suite

Background The need to control high costs of running operating rooms while providing for timely patient care led us to assess the time wasted in the operating room (OR). Methods OR use by two general surgery and two orthopedic departments in a metropolitan public hospital were analyzed, and the time elapsed when a scheduled OR remained unused or the patient was still awaiting surgery was measured. Results OR “time-waste” defined as the time in which the scheduled OR was not busy with the scheduled patient amounted to 79 hours over the 30-day study period (15% of total time). It was wasted owing to inappropriately prepared patients (12%), unavailability of surgeons (7%), insufficient nursing staff, anesthesiologists, or OR assignment to emergency surgery (59%), congestion of the postanesthesia care unit (10%), and delay in transport to the OR (2%) Another issue delineated was the frequent occurrence of surgical cases running longer than their scheduled time (termed “spill-over”), outrunning the staffing expectations after 3:00pm and delaying admission of add-on and emergency procedures, adding 33% to the time wasted. A quality-assurance committee review resulted in implementation of new guidelines, and within 3 months several underlying causes were rectified, and time-waste and spill over time was reduced by 35%. Surgical time predictions were also improved. Shortage of nurses and anesthesiologists, and OR emergency reassignment remained the major causes of OR waste time. Conclusions Continuous surveillance on OR suite—patients’ prompt care, repeated evaluation, and wise staff deployment—could maximize OR efficiency.