Participants:
Faculty/Clinicians/Staff: Prof. Amy Cohn, Dr. Ted Skolarus, Justin Dedecker, Dr. Tamar Lake, Rachel Moeckel, William Pozehl, Melissa Ringlein, Daniel Weir
Students: Fumiya Abe-Nornes, Samir Agrwala, Eric Chen, Laura Hattar, Malcolm Hudson, Max Wagner, Lan Yue, Shuhao Zhou
Project Contact: [email protected]
Project Synopsis:
Operating rooms (ORs) are vital to the overall operations of a hospital while also being one of their most expensive resources. Thus, it is imperative to maximize OR efficiency so that hospitals can increase their overall capacity for patient care while also saving significant amounts of money.
In this project, CHEPS is working with the surgical team at the VA-Ann Arbor Healthcare System in order to strategize ways of improving their OR efficiency. Some of the key performance indicators that we have focused on so far include:
- OR Utilization: Proportion of scheduled OR time that is actually used for surgery
- First-Case On-Time Start Rate: Proportion of first operations of the day that start at or before the scheduled time
- Turnaround Time: Time in between two scheduled surgeries in the same OR
We are investigating specific factors within each of these areas that contribute to overall OR inefficiency by analyzing data from previous surgeries at the VA. The goal is to understand the current state of operations and eventually provide any needed interventions.
Papers, Posters, & Presentations:
Posters:
- “Understanding Operating Room (OR) Utilization at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System,” Healthcare Systems Process Improvement Conference, Savannah GA, February 2020.