Wheels on Time: A Six Sigma Approach to Reduce Delay in Operating Room Starting Time

Abstract

Delay in performing operating procedures is one of the key factors that hinders optimal flow of patients and also has a significant impact on the economic outcome of the hospital. These delays could arise at various points due to multiple personnel involved in the process of performing a surgery. The main aim of the study was to identify possible causes for delay in performing operating procedures on time and instituting effective interventions which would prevent such delays. Positive reinforcement was used to encourage the surgical teams to perform the procedures on time and avoid the delays. The mean number of cases starting on time has improved from about 10% in March 2009 to about 80% in March 2011. With the use of effective intervention strategies delay in performing operating procedures can be reduced which ultimately improves overall patient satisfaction along with improving hospital costs.

Assessing the Impact of Lean Healthcare on Inpatient Care: A Systematic Review

“…The perioperative process includes the preoperative, operating room, and the postoperative departments, all of which have to run like a well-oiled machine to improve performance and achieve positive outcomes [112]. In this regard, preoperative throughput is an important element in achieving the perioperative goals for the first case's on-time start (OTS) [105,113,114]. In this research, all seven studies improved their on-start times after LH intervention.…”

Improving starting time in operating rooms of a tertiary hospital in Rwanda: a quality improvement project

“…For example, a study conducted in Harrisburg hospitals in USA successfully improved the starting time in OR from 13% to 80% in one hospital and from 7% to 83% in another hospital by applying the six sigma approach. [11] Although the approaches may be different, all these projects emphasized on using data as evidence to inform decision making, indicating the importance of accurate data in improving quality of services at hospitals.…”

“…[8] Many initiatives have been implemented to improve the first surgeries starting time, from enhancing communication among OR team members, staff education, process re-engineering. [10][11][12][13] Among all the various quality improvement approaches like Total Quality Management (TQM), Six Sigma, Lean, the eightstep Strategic Problem Solving (SPS) is a framework that emphasizes on using data and evidence to identify https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/rjmhs.v2i3.13 solutions to address problems in health care settings. [11] The SPS framework has been used in many health care organizations and the methodology has shown to be particularly effective in resource-limited settings.…”

“…[10][11][12][13] Among all the various quality improvement approaches like Total Quality Management (TQM), Six Sigma, Lean, the eightstep Strategic Problem Solving (SPS) is a framework that emphasizes on using data and evidence to identify https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/rjmhs.v2i3.13 solutions to address problems in health care settings. [11] The SPS framework has been used in many health care organizations and the methodology has shown to be particularly effective in resource-limited settings. [12][13][14][15][16] The eight steps of SPS approach are: 1) defining the problem; 2) setting an objective; 3) conducting a root cause analysis; 4) generating alternative strategies; 5) comparing strategies; 6) selecting a strategy; 7) implementing the strategy; and 8) evaluating its impact on the problem.…”