Monitoring operating room turnaround time: a retrospective analysis.
Purpose - Operating room (OR) turnaround time is a key process indicator for hospital business management: delays lead to a reduced surgical interventions per day with a consequent increase in costs and decrease in efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to increase understanding by assessing the process' steady-state behaviour and identifying changes that indicate either improvement or deterioration in quality. Design/methodology/approach - With this purpose, the authors retrospectively applied Shewhart control charts and exponentially weighted moving average control charts to data extracted from an hospital information system. Findings - The results showed that statistical process control is able to identify steady-state behaviour process and to detect positive or negative changes in process performance. In particular the authors detected a deterioration in the process performance coinciding with the change in the operating room patient transfer staff. Practical implications - This study showed that statistical quality control is a valuable tool for monitoring performance indicators. Currently, hospital managers are designing an OR dashboard which also includes the control charts. Originality/value - The paper highlights the control chart application to organizational indicators allowing an objective OR system performance assessment.
Department of Statistical Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Michele
M
Scagliarini
Department of Statistical Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Mariarosaria
M
Apreda
Accreditation Quality Research Unit, Quality Department, Ferrara University Hospital, Ferrara, Italy.
Ulrich
U
Wienand
Quality Department, Ferrara University Hospital, Ferrara, Italy.
Giorgia
G
Valpiani
D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D006801:Humans; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009873:Operating Rooms / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D011786:Quality Control; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors
Assessment; Key performance indicators; Organizational performance; Process control; Quality assessment