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Aug 6, 2023Keywords:
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Operating Room Efficiency in a Tertiary Center in Ethiopia
Abstract
Background: Operating room (OR) efficiency is a measure of how well time and resources are used for their intended purposes in the operating room. Commonly used parameters are cancelation rate, first case start-time, turnover time, and utilization rate. While previous similar study from our hospital showed inefficient OR utilization, the difference in performance among available ORs has not been described.
Methods: A cross sectional study was done at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, 550 bed tertiary teaching hospital, from November 2, 2020, till Jan 22, 2021. Out of total 9 operating rooms, four, i.e., Gastrointestinal, Gynecology, Pediatric Surgery and Endourology operating rooms were studied for efficiency parameters .
Results: Out of the 570 patients listed for surgery,404 were operated. The average cancellation rate was 27.3%,the highest being for Gynecology OR (41.5%) and lowest for Pediatric Surgery OR (18.2%). Average start time was 8:43am (SD = ± 25min). Start time was delayed by 43 minutes from the agreed 8:00 am. Only 2.5% of OR days were started within agreed time. Mean turnover time for all ORs was 25.2 minutes, the highest being for Gynecology OR(35min) and lowest for Pediatric Surgery OR(14min). Average OR utilization was 6hrs 30 min, which was 72% of the daily allocated 8hrs time.
Conclusion: Our operating rooms have a high cancellation rate and delayed start time. Turn over time and OR utilization were in general acceptable. There were significant differences in efficiency parameters across the four ORs. The OR manager in collaboration with all teams should work on improving start time and cancellation rates, and also identify why some ORs performed better than others while in the same institution.
