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/809919
makes sense to flip a 15-minute hand case that has a 10- to 15-minute turnover time because a surgeon can do another hand case in OR 1 while OR 2 is being turned over. On the other hand, it wouldn't make sense to flip knee arthroscopies where case duration is 60 to 90 min- utes and turnover time is about 30 minutes. There'd be too much standing around. Our surgeons have learned to book cases that fit our flipping criteria on days when we are most likely to have a second room available. When the surgery is considerably longer than the turnover, they know to book them for the start or end of the day. Exceptions to the rule. In general, we don't allow flipping if the team will be more than 90 minutes between cases, for cases longer than 60 minutes or for cases with significant variability in dura- tion, but we'll make exceptions. We'll consider flipping longer (more than 60 minutes) cases when we place a regional block. When you factor nerve block placement into turnover time, adding the 10 to 20 minutes it takes to place a block in pre-op extends the turnover long enough for us to consider a room flip. We can also adjust case duration expectations if a physician assistant is available to close, freeing the surgeon up earlier for anoth- er room. Schedule pacing. Don't let your doctors drive room flipping; they'll flip at all times and under any circumstance. Our medical director and team lead meet Thursday afternoon to review the next week's schedule and identify the flip days. Before the flipping begins, book longer cases as the first or last case of the day (bonus staff sav- ings: If you do a 90-minute case to start the day, team No. 2 doesn't have to come in until 15 minutes before the second case starts), and then schedule a bunch of "flippable" cases throughout the day. Flip 2 3 Business Advisor BA 2 4 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • A P R I L 2 0 1 7