Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.
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op to ensure they're ready for surgery as soon as rooms are finished." Preparing ahead of time also helps the team work efficiently between cases. They participate in daily morning huddles with OR schedulers, the OR manager, supply chain personnel and the sterile processing lead. "During the huddle, we review the schedule to make sure we have no conflicts with requests for equipment, and that we have all neces- sary instrument trays available for the next day's cases," says Ms. Tjelmeland. Staff always check their rooms' equipment carts first thing in the morning to see what their needs are and communicate with the sterile processing department about which instruments will be need- ed to be turned over quickly for upcoming cases. OR assistants anticipate when rooms will ready for cleaning and plan accordingly by, for example, placing mops and buckets outside rooms before cases end. This teamwide organization contributes to keeping efficiency high and room turnover times low. Active leaders Banner Baywood's leadership has been very involved and present in improving room turnovers, and worked to remove barriers along the way, including banishing the idea that staff doesn't have enough help. "We needed to change the way they approached their daily work, and that involved first changing their mindset," says Ms. Tjelmeland. Banner Baywood's leadership also realized early on the importance of being present and visible to staff while they're working. "They've commented on how nice it is to see the manager of our sterile pro- cessing department in our ORs, actually talking to the surgeons," says Rosemarie Roesler, MSN, RN, CNOR, CSSM, senior nurse manager. The involvement of managers in leadership roles is essential to room turnover success. "I think staff, surgeons and anesthesiologists are very comfort- able coming to us with any concerns they have, and they know that we will take care of them right away," adds Ms. Roesler. "We don't sit behind closed doors. Everybody is involved." Because the managers are so visible, they're able to acknowledge and address areas for improvement and implement changes. "We found that turnover times increased at 11 a.m., when most staff mem- bers take their lunch breaks," says Ms. Tjelmeland. "Now, when I assign lunch breaks, I make sure a lunchtime turnover team doesn't eat until 12:30. We have designated staff members who don't eat lunch until later, so there are always enough team mem- bers available to help turn over rooms." Leadership also created a "green sheet," which serves as a tool for real-time data collection. 3 2 • 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 • D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 0 ALL-IN ACHIEVEMENT Banner Baywood Medical Center improved its turnover times through the combined efforts of staff and leadership.