. . . include surgery process and system assessment, cost manage-
ment, facility evaluation and design, surgery information and bench-
marking analyses, operating room schedule planning and administration and interim contract management.
Experience Matters.
SMI Group brings over 60 years experience to clients coast to coast. We can successfully assist you in every phase of the surgery process, including improving relationships between staff, surgeons & referring physicians. We deliver marketable, cost-efficient programs with the latest technology and techniques.
Answers. Coast-to-Coast
Word of our success gets around – and so do we! SMI Group is proud of it's track record, literally from coast-to-coast. Regardless of where you are in North America, let SMI Group demonstrate how we can improve your hospital operation and bottom line.
Let's sit down & discuss how SMI Group can help.
Give us a call and let's talk about your hospital and operating room issues. We'll crunch some numbers and start your plan.
Don't put it off another day.
Call 734-327-4000 and talk with Sue.
Succession Planning for the Operating Room
SMI Group provides the tools and assistance to plan the management succession for your operating room. Our process identifies key roles, management capabilities of existing staff, and cultivates qualified internal candidates to become tomorrow's perioperative leaders.
For Nurses, Turnaround Time usually means from one patient leaving the Operating Room to the next patient entering the OR
For Anesthesiologists, Turnaround Time usually means from the time a patient is transported to PACU and given report to the next patient's anesthetic induction
For Surgeons, Turnaround Time means from the closure of one patient's surgical wound to the next patient's incision
While all these definitions are correct from the perspectives of the different clinicians, the one we will work with in this Module is that of the surgeon
Why such an emphasis on Turnaround (Turnover) Time?
Turnover Time represents lost revenue-generating opportunity for the Surgeon as well as the Hospital and Anesthesiologist.
Once in practice, the only thing physicians are really selling is their timeā¦..
- and hospitals can be notorious about wasting physicians' time!
Improving Turnover Time is a major opportunity to increase the clinicians' personal productivity and optimize hospitals' income.
Typical Turnaround Process
Activities are performed sequentially
- Nursing brings previously completed case instruments to decontamination area, then
- Picks instruments/supplies for next case, then
- Nursing completes room set up, then
- Anesthesia visits patient in Pre-op Holding, then
- Patient is transported into OR, etc., etc.
Rather than in parallel
Improved Turnaround Process
Improved Turnaround Time - Impact
Between current time and benchmark potential can yield significant opportunities for increased business as well as physician satisfaction.
Inpatient Case Time Analysis (Minutes)
Potential Impact on Increased Business
Potential Savings: 1,581 hours/year
Potential Added Cases/Year: 543 cases
Potential Impact on OR Availability
Equivalent Rooms: 1.10
Rooms that could accommodate additional volume
How Can We Improve Our Turnover Time?
The "secret" to improving turnover time is to create a Case Process Map - a definition for all the "actors" on the Operating Room stage of who should be doing what, and when.
Creating a multidisciplinary team (OR staff, Surgeons, Anesthesia Providers) to clearly identify roles during case set-up and break-down and to determine which activities may safely be conducted simultaneously.
Adherence to that Case Process Map by all clinicians on all cases.
Shared Definition of "Start" Time
Example Case Process Map
Efficiencies to Consider Incorporating into Case Process Map
Discontinue full body draping for minor procedures performed on head/neck and/or limb
Create smaller instrument sets for minor procedures
Discontinue between-case mopping on "bloodless" cases
Regularly review instrument trays' contents to eliminate seldom/never used items
Leave instruments in their trays on the back table (Instrumentation requires a significant labor time when laid out individually)
Regularly review pack contents and preference cards eliminating never used items to facilitate back table management, decrease set up and tear down times and promote cost containment.
Assign ancillary personnel to assist with:
- room cleaning
- patient positioning, catheterization, tourniquet placement, skin prep, limb holding, etc.
- specialized equipment hook ups and disconnects
- picking supplies/instruments for following cases while current case underway
- anesthesia equipment set up
Minimize documentation time. Collapse and combine as many chart documents as possible. Create an integrated perioperative record for pre-, intra-, and postoperative documentation.