Operating Room Management

Operating room management is the science of how to run an Operating Room Suite. Operational operating room management focuses on maximizing operational efficiency at the facility, i.e. to maximize the number of surgical cases that can be done on a given day while minimizing the required resources and related costs. For example, what is the number of required anaesthetists or the scrub nurses that are needed next week to accommodate the expected workload or how can we minimize the cost of drugs used in the Operating Room? Strategic operating room management deals with long-term decision-making. For example, is it profitable to add two additional rooms to the existing facility? Typically, operating room management in profit-oriented health-care systems (e.g. USA) emphasizes strategic thinking whereas in countries with publicly funded health care (e.g. the UK), the focus is on operational decisions.

The act of coordinating and running all parts of a surgical suite to accomplish a defined set of goals. An emerging field, operating room management is increasingly studied as how to best: 1) ensure patient safety and optimal patient outcome, 2) provide surgeons with appropriate access to the OR so that patients can have operations in a timely manner, 3) maximize the efficiency of operating room utilization, staff, and materials, 4) decrease patient delays, and 5) enhance satisfaction among patients, staff, and physicians. This management science as applied to the surgical suite is gaining more attention because of increasing market pressures on hospitals from competitors (e.g., other surgical suites including office based surgery) and from payers seeking lower prices. The surgical suite is often considered a profitable hospital unit. As such, surgical suites also comprise an important fraction of hospital budget spending. Holding patient safety constant, the opportunity to increase financial gain through modifying the use of already existing resources is a prime target for managerial analysis. Incremental improvements in operating room utilization and operating room efficiency can have major impacts on hospital staff and finances. Some hospital administrators perceive efficiency in the operating room as throughput, completing the most surgical cases within budget. Later in this article we will provide examples of tools a manager may use to analyze efficiency.