Abstract
Background: Operating room (OR) like casualty room is the most productive area of a hospital. Turnover time although is a non-productive time in the operating room, yet it is important. Its efficient utilisation require multidisciplinary team work especially supporting services which play a major role in reducing turnover time in the operating room. Since present medical college where study was being conducted is still in its evolving stage, it was considered desirable for its quality improvement to study various factors which are contributing in turnover time delay so that appropriate measures can be taken to prevent the undue turnover time delay.Materials and methods: Present prospective observational case study aims at measurement of turnover time delays during 100 working days which were completed over four months for two operation theatres. The variable chosen was the delay of turnover time from the benchmark time taken. The data were collected, compiled and analysed.Results: In orthopaedics OR 77% of turnovers were found within benchmark limits. Only in 23% cases turnovers were delayed. 47% of times hospital related issues were responsible. In surgery OR 79% of turnovers were within benchmark limits. 21% cases were delayed; of this hospital related problems caused delayed turnovers in 53% cases.Conclusions: The study concluded that reasons for delays centred on multifactorial reasons which were unavoidable and unpredictable. But if those problems that can be easily fixed are attended to, valuable time can be saved, which will ultimately keep the surgeries on schedule and will prevent cancellation of elective cases. The utilization of OT complex can be optimized by team effort, multitasking and parallel processing.Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol.16(2) 2017 p.245-251
Highlights
Maximizing utilization of Operating Room (OR) time is aim and dream of any hospital administration and other stake holders’ .Utilization rates are dependent on many factors and one of them is quick turnovers
The aims and objectives of our study is to evaluate reasons for delay in turnover times in operating rooms and give recommendations which will be enable us to maximise the optimum use of Operating room (OR) with help of active involvement of stake holders
Sultan et al reported that ORs are used for surgery only 54% of the time while the remaining time is used for anesthesia, prepping and draping, and delays/turnover.7Opinion of hospital administrators is that time with no surgical activity occurring, contributes to inefficiency and waste
Summary
Maximizing utilization of Operating Room (OR) time is aim and dream of any hospital administration and other stake holders’ .Utilization rates are dependent on many factors and one of them is quick turnovers. Turnover time (TOT) is calculated as duration of time between one patient leaving the OR and ends when the patient enters the OR includes time taken for setting up and cleaning of OR1,2.Cleaning in-between the cases is essential for reducing environmental contamination[3]. These tasks are usually completed in six to ten minutes in maximum number of cases. Conclusions: The study concluded that reasons for delays centred on multifactorial reasons which were unavoidable and unpredictable If those problems that can be fixed are attended to, valuable time can be saved, which will keep the surgeries on schedule and will prevent cancellation of elective cases. The utilization of OT complex can be optimized by team effort, multitasking and parallel processing
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