title: Developing meaningful metrics of clinical productivity for military treatment facility anesthesiology departments and operative services.
abstract: Comparing clinical productivity is important for strategic planning and the evaluation of resource allocation in any large organization. This process of benchmarking performance allows for the comparison of groups with similar characteristics. However, this process is often difficult when comparing the operative service productivity of large and small military treatment facilities because of the significant heterogeneity in mission focus and case complexity. However, in this article, we describe the application of a new method of benchmarking operative service productivity based on normalizing data for operating room sites, cases, and total American Society of Anesthesiologists units produced per hour. We demonstrate how these benchmarks allow for valid comparisons of operative service productivity among these military treatment facilities and how the data could be used in expanding or contracting operating locations. In addition, these benchmarks are compared with those derived from the use of this system in the civilian sector.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA. pmongan@usuhs.mil
authors.forename: Paul D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Mongan
authors.forename: L T Brian
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Van der Schuur
authors.forename: Louis A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Damiano
authors.forename: Darin K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Via
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000776:Anesthesiology / Q000191:economics* / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004526:Efficiency; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D008887:Military Medicine / Q000379:methods*; D009873:Operating Rooms / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative / Q000191:economics; D014481:United States