Block scheduling can be one of the most contentious issues that OR leaders face, but its effectiveness as an efficiency—and therefore cost management—tool makes it worth pursuing. Implementing block scheduling requires time, finesse, and dedication. James X. Stobinski, PhD, RN, CNOR, says it’s easy for OR managers to underestimate the…

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In many surgery departments, schedule management is a daily struggle. Staff work hard to manage case requests, juggle resources, and respond to changes, but errors, inefficiencies, and general frustration persist. The results are frequent case delays and cancellations, low utilization, high costs, low staff morale, and poor surgeon satisfaction. The…

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Sacred Heart Medical Center RiverBend in Springfield, Oregon, began OR optimization efforts soon after moving to a new facility in August 2008. Because of the US economic downturn around that same time, the hospital launched several initiatives to make the most of available resources, including a Lean process to improve…

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OR Business Performance is a series intended to help OR managers and directors improve the success of their business.   The OR labor budget usually takes a back seat to supplies and equipment. But labor costs can still create significant spending problems. Many hospital surgery departments use nursing full-time equivalents…

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OR Business Performance is a series intended to help OR managers and directors improve the success of their business.   How do you improve an OR’s financial performance? Last month’s column focused on two key strategies: using data to identify improvement opportunities and rallying support for organizational change. These strategies…

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Ten elements of safer surgery. Second in a series.   Much of the effort to ensure correct-site surgery focuses on preoperative verification. But scheduling is where it all begins. Capturing complete and accurate information when the case is booked is key to preventing errors down the line. Scheduling flaws are…

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An electronic form surgeons’ offices use to place scheduling orders has streamlined the preoperative process and sharply reduced case cancellations for a Chicago-area hospital. Cancellations are down from about 12% to less than 1% of cases since the scheduling form was introduced in early 2012. The offices took to the…

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With hospitals under ever greater economic pressure, perioperative managers are expected to hew closely to staffing productivity targets, meaning they must match staffing as closely as possible to the hours of surgery actually performed. They’re also expected to grow surgical volume. Hospitals’ revenue depends on it. To grow volume, ORs…

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If your OR wants to improve on-time first-case starts and turnover time—focus on everything else. That's the advice of Integris Southwest Medical Center in Oklahoma City, recently recognized as a "leading performer" for OR first-case on-time starts by VHA, Inc. Its strong performance is the outgrowth of a 4-year focus…

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Flipping, double teaming, running ORs back-to-back. These are a few terms for the practice of providing multiple ORs for particular surgeons. The practice is widespread. A show of hands during a breakout session at the recent Managing Today's OR Suite conference in Orlando found nearly everyone used this practice. Flipping…

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