Operating room management: why, how and by whom?

Abstract

Operating room (OR) is a cost-intensive environment, and it should be managed efficiently. When improving efficiency, shortening case duration by parallel processing, training of the resident surgeons, the choice of anesthetic methods, effective scheduling, and monitoring of the overall OR performance are important. When redesigning the OR processes, changes should be given a clear target and the achieved results monitored and reported to everyone involved. Advanced, reliable, and easy to use information technology solutions for OR management are under development. Pre-operative clinic and functionally designed facilities support efficiency. OR personnel must be kept motivated by clear management and leadership, supported by superiors.

Reducing elective general surgery cancellations at a Canadian hospital

“…2 Operating room efficiency may be improved by shorter surgical durations, rational scheduling of various types of surgeries and minimization of the nonoperative time by reorganizing OR activities. 3 However, managing ORs is a complex task owing to conflicting priorities and preferences of its stakeholders and to scarcity of costly resources. 4 In Canadian hospitals, which are funded by global budgets, OR inefficiency may result in elective surgery cancellations.…”

Organization of surgical services and operating room efficiency in Norwegian hospitals

“…Productivity and operating room efficiency is therefore of significant importance to hospital economics as well as patient satisfaction. Most studies on operating room efficiency have focused on elements such as turnover time, case duration, non-operative time, tardiness, and factors related to team members motivation and discipline [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] , by us defined as related to organization on the micro level. Few studies have, however, focused on how separate operating rooms for out-patients and in-patients, or organization with subspecialty specific or shared operating rooms, by us defined as organization on the macro level have impact on operating room efficiency.…”

Case Study: Review of Operating Room Utilization at Mayo Clinic Arizona (MCA)

“…One metric found useful to understand throughput in the OR is measuring turnover time and other non-operative time (Harders, Malangoni, Weight, and Sidhu, 2006). By measuring and accounting for non-operative time the manager can find opportunities to improve efficiency (Marjamaa, Vakkuri, & Kirvela, 2008 …”

“…Some institutions calculate raw utilization, which is the total hours of case performed during block-time divided by the available block-time (Marjamaa, Vakkuri, & Kirvela, 2008). Other organizations calculate and report an adjusted utilization number, which includes credit for turnover time of the operating room (Marjamaa et al).…”