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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Second in a series on OR performance. Performing more cases with the same OR capacity and personnel—and having more satisfied surgeons, anesthesia providers, and staff. That may sound like utopia, but there is a way to make it happen. The answer is a well-run block scheduling program. The need to…

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HCA Inc, the national health care company, has developed a block scheduling toolkit for its 165 hospitals. The toolkit includes decision points, algorithms for managing blocks, and sample policies. Here are HCA Inc's 10 decision points for block scheduling. 1. Is this the right time for block scheduling? About 75%…

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