Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Salary Survey - January 2020 - Subscribe to Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

Issue link: http://outpatientsurgery.uberflip.com/i/1199007

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 62 of 110

Before implementing widespread changes, test the effectiveness of the new turnover approach in several ORs involving a variety of cases. Over a 3-month span in 2018, Dr. Cerfolio and his team tested process improvements over 7 days in 35 ORs involving 42 cases. The process improvement team met weekly to review the data and identify barri- ers to greater efficiency. At the end of the trial period, they compared the results to historic data that involved the same surgeons perform- ing the same cases, and found they cut turnover times by more than half. Anecdotally, the process improvement team noticed turnover times were shorter when surgeons were present in the room between cases, perhaps because staff saw they were ready to get started on the next case as soon as the patient arrived. Stick-to-itiveness Don't get discouraged if turnover times don't decrease immediately. Ms. Rock says her team's efforts reduced average room cleaning times from 15 minutes to 8 minutes, but overall turnover times — defined as wheels out for the previous patient to wheels in for the next patient — have lagged because of issues occurring outside of the ORs. Still, she says, it's important to begin making the initial efforts that will eventual- ly lead to positive change. You might even realize some unexpected benefits along the way. A surgeon working down the hall from where Dr. Cerfolio conducted his process improvement project saw what was going on and expressed interest in making the same improvements in his ORs. The surgeon worked to decrease his turnover times from 36 minutes to 32 minutes and clocked 6 turnovers that took less than 20 minutes, the first time he reached that mark in his 30-year career. "When people see things getting better, they want to be part of it," says Dr. Cerfolio. "The halo effect is real." OSM J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 6 3

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Outpatient Surgery Magazine - Salary Survey - January 2020 - Subscribe to Outpatient Surgery Magazine