Interplay between surgeon, anesthesiologist affects productivity

Editor's Note

Assigning certain anesthesiologists to specific surgeons affected team performance and turnaround time in this study.

Researchers assessed the relationship between turnaround times and assignment of anesthesiologists to surgeons using a Monte Carlo simulation. They constructed managerial decision tables for the assignments, and defined a decision algorithm based on these tables.

Their analysis showed that had this algorithm been used in staffing the OR, median turnaround times would have a reduction potential of 6.8%.

doi: 10.1213/ANE.0000000000001672 Research Report: PDF Only Abstract BACKGROUND: Team performance has been studied extensively in the perioperative setting, but the managerial impact of interprofessional team performance remains unclear. We hypothesized that the interplay between anesthesiologists and surgeons would affect operating room turnaround times, and teams that worked together over time would become more efficient.