Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Best Buys - July 2013 - Outpatient Surgery Magazine - Subscribe

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

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Page 109 INFECTION PREVENTION billion a year and may lead to 100,000 patient deaths a year. Obviously, anything that improves those numbers is likely to be a good investment. Video auditing in the OR also helps with throughput and utilization, both of which are huge issues for just about every facility, especially in the age of healthcare reform. For example, when the auditor gets a signal from the OR staff, he can send a text message that lets us know it's time to send for the next patient. That builds in objective predictability and allows for better time management. Family members know when their loved ones are going in and out of surgery, and hospital staff don't feel as if they have to work more or work faster. Though we've just begun to get real-time feedback on improving turnover times, we've already seen sharp improvements. Previously, it took 26 minutes to get a patient into the room. Monitoring has helped drop that number to 10 minutes. Surgeons and anesthesiologists appreciate that, because it minimizes their downtime between cases. And reducing operating room turnover times can also reduce the agitation level of patients and other healthcare staff. Along with improving patient safety, the fiscal health of the facility is also getting a boost. After all, approximately 60% of hospital revenues come from the OR. We can handle more cases each day with the time we save, and we have fewer overtime costs resulting from delayed surgeries. Given that the average cost for OR usage is $2,000 per room, per hour, it's easy to see that the benefits and cost savings can be huge. How convinced are we that this is an innovation that provides value to patients and staff? We're currently expanding our program by adding video auditing to 20 more ORs in our system. Dr. Di Capua (jdicapua@nshs.edu) is chief of anesthesiology at North ShoreLIJ Health System in New York, and chief medical officer at North American Partners in Anesthesia in Melville, N.Y.

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