Increasing Operating Room Efficiency Through Decreased Turnover Times

Abstract

The Operating Room (OR) is the financial engine of the modern hospital or surgical center. Over 40% of the hospital's cost is invested in the OR, but the facility recoups a monetary return of around 60-70%. Turnover time is a crucial factor in reducing costs. Uncontrolled, it can inflate operating costs, but when managed effectively, it can boost surgeon, patient, and staff satisfaction, enhance patient safety, and significantly reduce operational costs. The literature underscores the importance of reducing the time between operating room turnovers to improve OR efficiency. A key strategy that research consistently shows to be effective is the implementation of structured presurgical briefings, such as TeamSTEPPS. These briefings, with their structured approach, play a crucial role in reducing turnover time in an OR, thereby increasing efficiency. The initial investment in developing a standardized preoperative brief through the TeamSTEPPS program as part of the morning brief has the potential to boost OR productivity and revenue significantly. By reducing the time from wheels out to wheels in for each surgery during the operating room's surgical day, this approach can lead to substantial financial gains. The project information is collected from 308 surgical cases from various services over three weeks during the project to determine whether conducting a formal TeamSTEPPS style preoperative formatted brief would reduce turnover times (TOTS) in the operating room (OR). The data showed a mean average reduction of slightly over six minutes in mean average turnover times during the project. The data showed that 20% of all scheduled cases had a turnover time greater than 25 minutes. Of the 20% of the cases, 7.6% of the increased TOTs were attributed to processes controlled by the OR staff. The remaining 12.6% of turnover time was attributed to issues related to surgeons, SDS/ APU, and different services in the hospital. The data shows that the effects of a daily organized and standardized presurgical briefing will improve turnover times better than a presurgical briefing without structure or organization.