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Improving operating room first start efficiency – value of both checklist and a pre‐operative facilitator
Author(s) -
PANNI M. K.,
SHAH S. J.,
CHAVARRO C.,
RAWL M.,
WOJNARWSKY P. K.,
PANNI J. K.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
acta anaesthesiologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.738
H-Index - 107
eISSN - 1399-6576
pISSN - 0001-5172
DOI - 10.1111/aas.12166
Subject(s) - checklist , medicine , facilitator , schedule , operations management , quality management , anesthesia , pediatrics , computer science , psychology , management system , political science , law , economics , cognitive psychology , operating system
Background There are multiple components leading to improved operating room efficiency. We undertook a project focusing on first case starts; accounting for each delay component on a global basis. Our hypothesis was there would be a reduction in first start delays after we implemented strategies to address the issues identified through this accounting process. Methods An orange sheet checklist was implemented, with specific items that needed to be clear prior to roll back to the operating room ( OR ), and an OR facilitator was employed to intervene whenever there were any missing items needed for a specific patient. We present the data from this quality improvement project over an 18‐month period. Results Initially, 10.07 (± 0.73) delayed first starts occurred per day but declined steadily over time to a low of 4.95 (± 0.38) per day after 6 months (−49.2 %, P < 0.001). By the end of the project, the most common reasons for delay still included late surgical attending (19%), schedule changes (14%) as well as ‘other reasons’ (13%), but with an overall reduction per day of each. Total anaesthesia delay initially totalled 11% of the first start delays, but was negligible (< 1%) at the project's completion. Conclusions While we have a challenging operating room environment based on our patient population, multiple trainees in both the surgery and anaesthesiology teams: an orange sheet – pre‐operative checklist in addition to a dedicated pre‐operative facilitator; allowed us to make a substantial improvement in our first start on time starts.