Sullivan Healthcare Consulting (SHC) has partnered with many healthcare organizations and physicians in developing and managing their perioperative departments. Our perioperative experts provide hospitals and health systems with comprehensive perioperative program assessments and customized recommendations that result in improved operational efficiency and increased income. Over decades of evaluating surgery scheduling programs, our team can quickly identify elements of an ineffective scheduling program and address the issues head-on to decrease your cost per case.
Read, ‘Presurgical Evaluation Case Study: Improving Presurgical Evaluation to Optimize the Daily Schedule.’
The Client
- Community Hospital
- 18 ORs
- OR utilization of 57%
- Sought block time to surgeons based on need/utilization
The Challenge
- Insufficient process for in-depth review and validation of block utilization
- Lacked utilization monitoring tool
How Sullivan Perioperative Consultants Increased OR Efficiency
An effective block scheduling program should be individualized to your specific perioperative program and include variable block sizes and release times to achieve on-time starts.
After a review of surgeon’s cases, OR times, and case scheduling policies, our perioperative experts and the hospital’s Operating Room Executive Committee (OREC) implemented:
- Reviewed and revised case scheduling policies and presenting to surgeons for input.
- Updated block utilization policies.
- Initiated a committee to establish a process for reviewing block time and assignments.
- Established a review process for urgent and emergent cases.
- Designed a process for providing surgeons with key stats on their OR utilization every month.
- Created a monthly scorecard for 85 surgeons.
Our Results
- Developed a culture within the surgery department that block time is a privilege, not a right.
- Generated a high level of awareness in the mind of each surgeon about their utilization performance on a monthly basis.
- After reviewing 3 months of scorecard data, OREC adjusted surgeons’ block time to align with the data.
Sample Surgeon Scorecard
Customized Perioperative Consulting & Implementation Support
During a perioperative consulting project, SHC perioperative consultants will establish a customized scheduling process for your organization. Our team of experts can also ensure that the implementation of recommendations will result in a more-than-adequate return on investment.
To learn more about our perioperative services and how SHC can help improve your organization’s OR performance, contact us today.