Dedicated operating room for emergency surgery generates more utilization, less overtime, and less cancellations

Elizabeth van Veen-Berkx; Sylvia G Elkhuizen; Bart Kuijper; Geert Kazemier; Dutch Operating Room Benchmarking Collaborative

doi:10.1016/j.amjsurg.2015.06.021

Dedicated operating room for emergency surgery generates more utilization, less overtime, and less cancellations

Elizabeth van Veen-Berkx, Sylvia G Elkhuizen, Bart Kuijper, Geert Kazemier, Dutch Operating Room Benchmarking Collaborative

Surgery

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Two approaches prevail for reserving operating room (OR) capacity for emergency surgery: (1) dedicated emergency ORs and (2) evenly allocating capacity to all elective ORs, thereby creating a virtual emergency team. Previous studies contradict which approach leads to the best performance in OR utilization.

METHODS: Quasi-experimental controlled time-series design with empirical data from 3 university medical centers. Four different time periods were compared with analysis of variance with contrasts.

RESULTS: Performance was measured based on 467,522 surgical cases. After closing the dedicated emergency OR, utilization slightly increased; overtime also increased. This was in contrast to earlier simulated results. The 2 control centers, maintaining a dedicated emergency OR, showed a higher increase in utilization and a decrease in overtime, along with a smaller ratio of case cancellations because of emergency surgery.

CONCLUSION: This study shows that in daily practice a dedicated emergency OR is the preferred approach in performance terms regarding utilization, overtime, and case cancellations.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	122-8
Number of pages	7
Journal	American Journal of Surgery
Volume	211
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjsurg.2015.06.021
Publication status	Published - Jan 2016

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10.1016/j.amjsurg.2015.06.021

Cite this

van Veen-Berkx, E., Elkhuizen, S. G., Kuijper, B., Kazemier, G., & Dutch Operating Room Benchmarking Collaborative (2016). Dedicated operating room for emergency surgery generates more utilization, less overtime, and less cancellations. American Journal of Surgery, 211(1), 122-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjsurg.2015.06.021

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abstract = "BACKGROUND: Two approaches prevail for reserving operating room (OR) capacity for emergency surgery: (1) dedicated emergency ORs and (2) evenly allocating capacity to all elective ORs, thereby creating a virtual emergency team. Previous studies contradict which approach leads to the best performance in OR utilization.METHODS: Quasi-experimental controlled time-series design with empirical data from 3 university medical centers. Four different time periods were compared with analysis of variance with contrasts.RESULTS: Performance was measured based on 467,522 surgical cases. After closing the dedicated emergency OR, utilization slightly increased; overtime also increased. This was in contrast to earlier simulated results. The 2 control centers, maintaining a dedicated emergency OR, showed a higher increase in utilization and a decrease in overtime, along with a smaller ratio of case cancellations because of emergency surgery.CONCLUSION: This study shows that in daily practice a dedicated emergency OR is the preferred approach in performance terms regarding utilization, overtime, and case cancellations.",

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Dedicated operating room for emergency surgery generates more utilization, less overtime, and less cancellations. / van Veen-Berkx, Elizabeth; Elkhuizen, Sylvia G; Kuijper, Bart; Kazemier, Geert; Dutch Operating Room Benchmarking Collaborative.

In: American Journal of Surgery, Vol. 211, No. 1, 01.2016, p. 122-8.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

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