The operating room (OR) is the epicenter of any surgical facility. Although it is the most expensive resource, it also generates the most revenue. Inefficient use of the OR negatively impacts patients’ health, staff morale, and the facility’s revenue. Surgery cancellations are the primary reason for operating room underutilization. So how can you decrease cancellations and improve operating room efficiency?
To understand what operating room efficiency best practices will work for you, you first have to figure out the main causes of your facility’s surgery cancellations. Based on statistics from numerous sources and our own experience, we know the most widespread reasons.
Why don’t your patients show up for surgery?
Across the board, the main causes of surgery cancellation are:
- Medical reasons. A patient may have decided to switch to non-operative management, or they may have recovered and no longer need the surgery, or perhaps they have gotten worse and now can’t have the surgery without major health implications.
- Inadequate patient communication. This may entail poor communication with patients about pre-operative measures, the surgery process, or costs. Patients who aren’t clear on the steps before, during, and after surgery can forget to submit crucial documentation (e.g. lab tests) or, worse, lose confidence in the facility, cancel the operation, and seek care elsewhere.
- Booking issues. A facility can be overbooked, or there can be incorrect bookings caused by system errors or miscommunication in the facility.
- Personal and financial reasons may block patients from having surgery on the intended day.
What is operating room efficiency?
Operating room efficiency is a term that describes the time and effort necessary to conduct a surgical procedure.
Facilities with a high OR efficiency are able to successfully perform high-quality surgeries with minimal waste, effort, and cost.
Steps to improve your OR efficiency
The cost of an operating room varies depending on multiple factors: facility location, procedure type, surgery complexity, and equipment and staff required. This is why the cost can range from a few hundred to several thousand dollars per hour. A study by JAMA Surgery used financial data from California’s short-term general and specialty hospitals in 2014 and determined that the average cost of OR time was $36 to $37 per minute. Knowing the approximate cost of OR time, you can realize how expensive every delay, error, and cancellation is.
There are many obstacles that may stop your surgical processes from going smoothly from A to Z. However, operating room inefficiencies (which many surgical facilities struggle with) are the root cause. Let’s discuss how your facility can start improving OR efficiency.
Simplify your surgery scheduling process
Operating room inefficiency often begins with an inefficient surgery scheduling process. Many ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) continue using outdated methods like phone, fax, email, and paper to book surgeries, communicate with patients and physicians, coordinate information, and track updates right up to the day of surgery.
Coordinating over 70 unique pieces of information from multiple sources using these methods is labor-intensive, error-prone, and time-consuming. That’s why many ASCs feel the need to keep hiring more staff to handle scheduling.
To simplify the surgery booking process and improve your operating room efficiency metrics, consider using surgical scheduling software. Not only does it enable faster scheduling; it also enables facilities to identify potential gaps before surgery, such as missing patient data, staff, or equipment; or insufficient time blocks for the surgical case. By noticing these issues early on, you have more time to fix them and keep OR efficiency high.
Read more – Surgery scheduling process
