Title: Operating room turnaround time analysis: a case study

Authors: Bryan A. Norman; Bopaya Bidanda

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, 1048 Benedum Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA ' Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, 1048 Benedum Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA

Abstract: Operating rooms in the USA are typically the largest source of revenue for a hospital and correspondingly are also major cost centres. In efforts to cut overall operating costs, hospitals typically reduce budgets (and costs) instead of increasing productivity. Although many operating room 'studies' are conducted, few are documented in the archival literature. The case study presented proposes a standard definition of key parameters including turnaround time. It also presents a replicable methodology for analyses of operating room turnaround times. It can be seen from the case study that careful implementation is a key to successful change that will consequently reduce patient wait times. The results of the case study show that operating room turnaround times can be reduced by as much as a third which in turn can result in one extra surgery per shift.

Keywords: operating rooms; turnaround times; process mapping; process redesign; operating room efficiency; case study; operating costs; patient waiting times; surgery; productivity.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCENT.2014.065056

International Journal of Collaborative Enterprise, 2014 Vol.4 No.1/2, pp.101 - 114

Received: 02 Aug 2013
Accepted: 05 Apr 2014
Published online: 09 Oct 2014 *

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