578 Optimising Emergency Theatre Efficiency with the Use of a Pre-Anaesthetic Holding Bay, a Quality Improvement Project

Abstract

Abstract Aim An efficient emergency theatre depends on the coordination of multiple surgical specialties, anaesthetists, and theatre staff. The serial nature of an operating list leads to downtime between cases. We sought to reduce delays between emergency cases by implementing a pre-anaesthetic holding bay. Method Anonymised data was collected from a prospectively maintained mandatory database of theatre activity. Exclusion criteria were non-surgical procedures, first case, out-of-hours procedures, and critical care admissions. Suitability was determined from a period pre-implementation and a pre-defined trial period to ensure safe rollout. Pre-, trial, and post-implementation were compared. Results 349 emergency procedures were performed in three months post-implementation. After exclusion criteria 110 were suitable for pre-anaesthetic holding bay use, and in 35 (31.8%) it was utilised. Most cases were general surgery (61%), vascular surgery (15%), and gynaecology (12%). Holding bay use decreased time without a patient in the anaesthetic room from 50 to 5 minutes (p<.001) and the time between procedures from 86 to 43 minutes (p<.001). There was no difference in anaesthetic time between the groups (36 vs 38 minutes, p=.40). Over the three months 40 more in-hours cases were completed in 48 days with no difference in procedures across the periods. Conclusions Pre-anaesthetic holding bay use reduced theatre downtime by 90%, allowing more procedures to be performed in-hours. All specialties engaged with the holding bay but to varying extent, and ensuring investment from surgeons, anaesthetists, and theatre staff is essential. This intervention, implemented with no extra resources, has increased efficiency and improved safety in the emergency theatre list.