ORX Proceedings
Page 16
Turn Time Into Money
Play hardball when it comes to block time, says Amy Whisnant, MSN, RN-BC, CNOR, director of perioperative services at CaroMont Health in Gastonia, N.C. She increased target block time utilization from 50% to 70%; penalized docs who fell short; raised the criterion for additional block time to 85% utilization; and also penalized surgeons who released 33% or more of their time. The result: OR block productivity went up from 75% in 2012 to 83.3% in 2013.
Backfill Your Schedule
Schedule from the end of the block to the beginning, so you leave earlier start times open for add-ons, says Michael Pankey, RN, MBA, administrator of the ASC of Spartanburg (S.C.). He also suggests you move smaller cases into an underperforming doc's room, which opens up more prep time for big cases in the
busier docs' rooms.
Dole Out Raises Based on Merit
LoAnn Vande Leest, RN, MBA-H, CNOR, CASC, managing director of the Surgery Center in Franklin, Wis., judges employees by 6 performance parameters: communication and customer service; expense and resource management; initiative and problem solving; job knowledge and skills; productivity and quality of work; and teamwork. She rates them in each category on a scale of 1 (unsatisfactory) to 4 (exceptional), tallies the ratings and divides by 6 for an average score. That gives
her a figure for comparing individual performances against the group.
Lean on Workflow Technology
Decrease same-day cancellations and improve patient throughput with pre-anesthesia screening technology, says Jerry Henderson, RN, BSN, CNOR, CASC, MBA,
assistant vice president of LifeBridge Health in Baltimore, Md. Her facility's platform lets clinical, scheduling and financial systems communicate with each other
and with physicians' offices. The system improved periop efficiencies and could
