Operating room productivity is the quantity and quality of output (typically surgical cases) from the surgical suite in contrast to the amount of input required (such as physicians and nurses and equipment for example). Many institutions believe that productivity (output/input) can be accomplished without sacrificing convenience (rapid access to open OR time such that a surgeon can book a case without having to wait) but these two aspects are not separable.
Typically, the greater the operating room utilization, the less the convenience (able to book cases when desired) as defined by surgeons and patients. This is because as utilization goes up there is less available open staffed OR time available on short notice. In other words, the greater the access and convenience, the lower is operating room utilization (because of the need for extra capacity), at least as perceived by hospitals and anesthesiologists. This high level of customer service of being able to book cases on short notice is one reason ambulatory surgery centers typically have lower OR utilization than big city hospitals. The outpatient surgery center usually has reduced overhead when compared to a big city hospital, and therefore can financially get away with lower OR use.
Read more about this topic: Operating Room Management
Famous quotes containing the words operating room, operating, room and/or productivity:
“Many people operate under the assumption that since parenting is a natural adult function, we should instinctively know how to do it—and do it well. The truth is, effective parenting requires study and practice like any other skilled profession. Who would even consider turning an untrained surgeon loose in an operating room? Yet we “operate” on our children every day.”
—Louise Hart (20th century)
“I think there are innumerable gods. What we on earth call God is a little tribal God who has made an awful mess. Certainly forces operating through human consciousness control events.”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)
“In some of those dense fir and spruce woods there is hardly room for the smoke to go up. The trees are a standing night, and every fir and spruce which you fell is a plume plucked from night’s raven wing.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It is ultimately in employers’ best interests to have their employees’ families functioning smoothly. In the long run, children who misbehave because they are inadequately supervised or marital partners who disapprove of their spouse’s work situation are productivity problems. Just as work affects parents and children, parents and children affect the workplace by influencing the employed parents’ morale, absenteeism, and productivity.”
—Ann C. Crouter (20th century)