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T U R N O V E R
Let staff know you're watching
Know the old saying, what gets measured gets done? Let your staff
and surgeons know that you're tracking turnover times and case
delays, says Deborah Niccolini, BSN, director of surgery at Memorial
Hospital of Union County in Marysville, Ohio. "Collect and analyze
this data to identify causes and bottlenecks, and discuss the results at
meetings to keep the process on everyone's mind."
Pay for performance, says Paul Rein, DO, medical director of the Port
Warwick Ambulatory Surgery Center in Newport News, Va. Dr. Rein
incentivizes the nursing staff with bonus money. He sets standard
turnover times. Staff know they'll be rewarded with a bonus if they meet
or exceed the case-dependent times. "Amazing what a little money will
do to make the process more efficient," he says.
Your scheduler can assist with room turnover by ensuring that like
cases and the same laterality of surgical site follow one another.
"Group your arthroscopic cases with same procedure and same side
to reduce furniture and cart rearranging," says Lizbeth Bozeman, RN,
CNOR, OR director of the Virginia Beach (Va.) ASC.
Your surgeons can help, too. Ask them to mark patients when
they're done with the previous procedure, but before they dictate.
"Oftentimes our physicians disappear into dictation and then get
sucked in to other phone calls and we're waiting on them to take the
patient back to the OR," says Stacy Meadows, RN, pre/post team
leader at Court Street Surgery Center in Redding, Calif.
OR turnaround kits are a great idea. These pre-packaged kits contain all the materials that are necessary to turn the room around
quickly: all disposable table pads, arm covers, laundry bags, biohazardous bags, mops and whatever other products that your facility uses
to turn around the room.
N O V E M B E R 2013 | O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E
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