You are here

Article Text

Article menu

Download PDFPDF

Original research
Operating room relay strategy for turnover time improvement: a quality improvement project
  1. Efrain Riveros Perez1,2,
  2. Rebecca Kerko1,
  3. Nathaniel Lever1,
  4. Abigail White1,
  5. Sebastian Kahf3,
  6. Bibiana Avella-Molano1
  1. 1Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, Augusta, Georgia, USA
  2. 2Department of Outcomes Research, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA
  3. 3Medical College of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Efrain Riveros Perez; efrainriveros{at}gmail.com

Abstract

Introduction Operating room (OR) management plays a pivotal role in the healthcare system due to the high cash flow it yields. Enhancing communication in the OR, which is the common root problem for delays, might improve OR efficiency and revenues for healthcare. This study aims to evaluate the impact of an OR relay strategy on turnover time (TOT).

Methods A quality improvement project was conducted. In the intervention group, a certified registered nurse anaesthetist (CRNA) remained outside of the OR, coordinating the steps to get the next patient ready. This CRNA communicated with the anaesthesia providers within the OR via a Microsoft Team chat. The TOT for the control group was recorded from the electronic anaesthesia record system.

Results/data analysis Analysis of 636 turnovers was performed with non-parametric tests. The OR relay strategy decreased TOT for most ORs, with statistically significant results for three of the ORs and the overall ORs system. A decreased in variability between TOTs was evidenced for the overall OR and the majority of the ORs evaluated individually.

Conclusion The OR relay strategy has a positive impact on TOT.

  • Anaesthesia
  • Efficiency, Organizational
  • Information technology

Data availability statement

Data are available on reasonable request.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjoq-2022-001957

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    Data availability statement

    Data are available on reasonable request.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Contributors RK, NL and AW contributed to the process of data collection and implementation of the relay strategy. BA-M and SK contributed to data analysis and article writing. ERP project coordinator. ERP project guarantor.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.