Other facility managers are facing
the same dilemma, which begs the
question: How late is too late to start
the last case of the day? Some work
backwards from the end time. At the
Surgery Center of Fort Collins
(Colo.), the last cases of the day
must be scheduled to end at 5 p.m.,
says Susan Lewton, RN, CNOR, the
quality coordinator. Kingsport
(Tenn.) Day Surgery shoots for a 4
p.m. end time, but the cutoff's not
set in stone. Jessica Rutters, MBA,
Kingsport's administrator, allows for exceptions "when it makes
sense," such as when she doesn't expect a discharge problem or it's a
short, relatively routine case like a carpal tunnel release.
The Texas Orthopedics Surgery Center in Austin, Texas, staggers the
start times for its OR teams, scheduling 3 teams at the start of the day
and 1 team to start later to cover the later cases. If more than 1 of the
3 ORs is scheduled to run past 5 p.m., an agency team comes in.
"That being said, there are times that the schedule just blows up and
all of our planning and good intentions get lost in the craziness," says
Jennifer King, RN, BSN, of Texas Orthopedics. "If a patient requires a
PACU stay past 2030 or so, we consider a transfer. We hate doing
them, but if that's what it takes, then that's what we'll do." Ms. King
tries to book the docs that tend to arrive late or run past their sched-
uled time earlier in the day. "If that's not possible," she says, "then we
try to limit the number of cases they book for that day."
— Dan O'Connor
S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 6 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 1 5
When's the latest
you'll start a case?
1 p.m. 3%
2 p.m. 6%
3 p.m. 25%
4 p.m. 31%
5 p.m. 35%
SOURCE: Outpatient Surgery Magazine
InstaPoll, August 2016, n=309
InstaPoll