Development and Implementation of a Data Tracking Tool to Identify Reasons for Scheduled Gaps in the Surgery Schedule

The operating room (OR) of any hospital is a significant part of the profitability of the healthcare system. It is estimated that forty to seventy percent of a hospital’s entire revenue comes from the OR (Bovim et al., 2020; Kaye et al., 2019; Jung et al., 2019; Welder et al., 2016). Gaps in the sur...

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Main Author: Whiteside, Dawn
Format: Online
Language:eng
Created: Oscar Rennebohm Library 2023
Online Access:http://digitalcollections.edgewood.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p16315coll4/id/91
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spelling edcoai_p16315coll4-91 Development and Implementation of a Data Tracking Tool to Identify Reasons for Scheduled Gaps in the Surgery Schedule Whiteside, Dawn The operating room (OR) of any hospital is a significant part of the profitability of the healthcare system. It is estimated that forty to seventy percent of a hospital’s entire revenue comes from the OR (Bovim et al., 2020; Kaye et al., 2019; Jung et al., 2019; Welder et al., 2016). Gaps in the surgery schedule result in lost revenue, lost productivity of staff assigned to the operating room, and the potential for a decrease in the number of patients receiving the surgery needed. This quality improvement (QI) project represents an intervention to develop and implement a data tracking tool to determine the reason for scheduled gaps in the surgery schedule. Baseline data collected prior to the QI project demonstrated a significant loss in revenue due to the number of gap minutes discovered during a consecutive three-month period. Background: Data collected prior to initiating the QI project showed lost revenue over one million dollars per month for two consecutive months due to the number of scheduled gap minutes in the surgery schedule. A system data analyst collects general information related to surgical times that include first case on time starts (FCOTS), turnover times (TOT), and gaps in the surgical schedule. There is currently no tool or process in place to look at causes of the scheduled gaps in the surgery schedule. Method: A data collection tool was developed and implemented to track identifying causes for the scheduled gaps in the surgical schedule. The project team discussed different data points for tracking, and this resulted in multiple iterations of the data tracking tool. Results: There are 12 specialty clinics and 69 physicians at this Midwest Level I Pediatric Trauma Center. The data collected from the tracking tools identified the primary cause of scheduled gaps, 94%, were linked to physicians being unavailable due to clinic scheduling. In addition, the data revealed one specialty clinic to have a significantly higher incidence of gap minutes and attributed to two primary physicians. Conclusion: Additional data collection is needed to explore possible QI interventions to decrease the number of scheduled gap minutes. The author developed four iterations of the data tracking tool in collaboration with the project team to further refine additional data points. The intervention would benefit from implementation of a QI process within the identified specialty clinic and with the specific physicians identified as key contributors. Operating rooms - Administration; Medical appointments and schedules; 2023-05 United States eng Text application/pdf ESC-2023-Whiteside Oscar Rennebohm Library Non-exclusive permission granted by the copyright holder (author), authorizing the Oscar Rennebohm Library, Edgewood College, to digitize and distribute the work for nonprofit, educational purposes. Commercial use or profit is prohibited. The copyright owner retains all other rights of the work. http://digitalcollections.edgewood.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p16315coll4/id/91
institution Edgewood College
collection OJS
language eng
format Online
author Whiteside, Dawn
spellingShingle Whiteside, Dawn
Development and Implementation of a Data Tracking Tool to Identify Reasons for Scheduled Gaps in the Surgery Schedule
author_facet Whiteside, Dawn
author_sort Whiteside, Dawn
title Development and Implementation of a Data Tracking Tool to Identify Reasons for Scheduled Gaps in the Surgery Schedule
title_short Development and Implementation of a Data Tracking Tool to Identify Reasons for Scheduled Gaps in the Surgery Schedule
title_full Development and Implementation of a Data Tracking Tool to Identify Reasons for Scheduled Gaps in the Surgery Schedule
title_fullStr Development and Implementation of a Data Tracking Tool to Identify Reasons for Scheduled Gaps in the Surgery Schedule
title_full_unstemmed Development and Implementation of a Data Tracking Tool to Identify Reasons for Scheduled Gaps in the Surgery Schedule
title_sort development and implementation of a data tracking tool to identify reasons for scheduled gaps in the surgery schedule
description The operating room (OR) of any hospital is a significant part of the profitability of the healthcare system. It is estimated that forty to seventy percent of a hospital’s entire revenue comes from the OR (Bovim et al., 2020; Kaye et al., 2019; Jung et al., 2019; Welder et al., 2016). Gaps in the surgery schedule result in lost revenue, lost productivity of staff assigned to the operating room, and the potential for a decrease in the number of patients receiving the surgery needed. This quality improvement (QI) project represents an intervention to develop and implement a data tracking tool to determine the reason for scheduled gaps in the surgery schedule. Baseline data collected prior to the QI project demonstrated a significant loss in revenue due to the number of gap minutes discovered during a consecutive three-month period. Background: Data collected prior to initiating the QI project showed lost revenue over one million dollars per month for two consecutive months due to the number of scheduled gap minutes in the surgery schedule. A system data analyst collects general information related to surgical times that include first case on time starts (FCOTS), turnover times (TOT), and gaps in the surgical schedule. There is currently no tool or process in place to look at causes of the scheduled gaps in the surgery schedule. Method: A data collection tool was developed and implemented to track identifying causes for the scheduled gaps in the surgical schedule. The project team discussed different data points for tracking, and this resulted in multiple iterations of the data tracking tool. Results: There are 12 specialty clinics and 69 physicians at this Midwest Level I Pediatric Trauma Center. The data collected from the tracking tools identified the primary cause of scheduled gaps, 94%, were linked to physicians being unavailable due to clinic scheduling. In addition, the data revealed one specialty clinic to have a significantly higher incidence of gap minutes and attributed to two primary physicians. Conclusion: Additional data collection is needed to explore possible QI interventions to decrease the number of scheduled gap minutes. The author developed four iterations of the data tracking tool in collaboration with the project team to further refine additional data points. The intervention would benefit from implementation of a QI process within the identified specialty clinic and with the specific physicians identified as key contributors.
publisher Oscar Rennebohm Library
publishDate 2023
url http://digitalcollections.edgewood.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p16315coll4/id/91
_version_ 1801568096825114624

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