In many hospitals, reliance on outdated, manual block management processes exacerbates the problem, limiting the ability to optimize OR time and improve patient outcomes.
During a recent Becker’s Healthcare webinar sponsored by LeanTaaS, two leaders from Tacoma, Wash.-based MultiCare Health System discussed how their organization leveraged AI to increase staffed operating room usage by 16% and add 1,600 incremental cases:
- Wesley Hart, MD, anesthesiologist, MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital
- Chris Hunt, BSN, RN, associate vice president, perioperative services, MultiCare Health System
Five key takeaways were:
- Block time allocation for the OR needs to be rethought. Many organizations have poorly defined block allocation policies and no clear way to enforce block rules. It’s often easy to grant block time, then difficult to take it back from surgeons. In addition, block utilization metrics are flawed due to the volatility in cases across surgeons and service lines. As a result, there’s a lack of credible, real-time data. “We struggled with all these issues,” Dr. Hart said. “As we attempted to find a better way, we came across LeanTaaS and became a customer in fall of 2017.”
- MultiCare took a data–driven approach to OR schedule optimization. iQueue for Operating Rooms helped the team find and advertise open OR time. LeanTaaS also provided education so that physician offices understood how to schedule cases efficiently and surgeons understood the data in the system. “It was a big step for us to not just have technology, but also to create the structure and process needed to support effective scheduling,” Mr. Hunt said.
- An effective governance committee is essential in optimizing the OR. MultiCare started with an administration-led OR block committee, which relied on anecdotal information, rather than sound data. This group lacked authority and decision-making capabilities. It was replaced by a physician-led and physician-governed utilization committee. “We came up with a mission for the committee, as well as policies and procedures for governing utilization of our ORs,” Dr. Hart said. “We make sure that our information is as transparent as possible. That’s been really effective for us.”
- iQueue for Operating Rooms has dramatically improved OR efficiency at MultiCare. Between 2020 and 2023, the organization saw an 18% increase in prime time utilization. During that same time period, a 16% increase in staffed room utilization yielded 100,000 extra case minutes. In just one year (2022 to 2023), MultiCare was able to add 1,600 more surgical cases. “As the staff transparently sees the data about our efficiency improvements, it makes them proud to come to work,” Dr. Hart said.
- Visibility into standardized metrics creates “systemness.” All of MultiCare’s ORs are now using iQueue for Operating Rooms. A standardized set of metrics enables the leadership team to compare OR performance across locations, share best practices and level load cases across facilities in the Puget Sound region. To align anesthesiologists with ORs, the organization has also started a weekly regional schedule consolidation process.
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