I
ncreasing case volumes is the
obvious way to infuse your
facility with additional rev-
enue. Looking at ways to
improve efficiencies, limit
waste and make smart purchasing
decisions are also important factors
that ultimately contribute to running
a fiscally sound facility. Your choic-
es surrounding case scheduling,
investments in capital equipment
and supply buys must always be
made with an eye on the bottom line
because reducing expenses is anoth-
er effective way to pad profits.
Time well spent
Filling out your daily surgical sched-
ule based on estimates of how long
procedures last instead of actual
case times leads to a cascade of
problems, including paying staff to
stand around in empty ORs waiting
for the next case to start.
The first way to address this issue
is to realize that case times
shouldn't be defined as the time that
elapses between when incisions are
made and when they're closed.
Patients have to be positioned,
prepped and anesthetized before
surgery and woken up and moved to
recovery afterward. If your historic
scheduled case times are recorded
using start-to-end times, meaning
only the length of the procedure itself, I recommend
adding at least 10 minutes to that time to reflect the
more accurate in-room/out-room time.
Consider investing in a software package to eval-
uate your historic case time data and use that infor-
mation to schedule cases based on how long they
typically last, not how long you think they last. Take
the additional time to break down the data by pro-
cedure and long-term averages. Doing so is helpful
if surgeons question the recorded case times and
point to an extenuating circumstance with a single
procedure. Having procedure-grouped data lets you
show that a certain procedure routinely takes
longer than the time for which it was scheduled,
5 6 • O U T P A T I
E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • O C T O B E R 2 0 2 0
Cherokee Gonzalez, RN, BSN | Tampa, Fla.
Smart Ways to Save Money
Pinching pennies and saving big dollars can add up to significant profits.
ON THE CLOCK Scheduling software can help you analyze data surrounding your OR usage time — and give you the
hard facts you need to make the case to surgeons that changes are needed.
All
photos
by
Cherokee
Gonzalez,
RN,
BSN