Blog

Organize your operating room with Operating Theatre Scheduling

An operating theater's daily scheduling is a constant act of juggling multiple criteria and competing aims. Due to the high cost of operating an OR, schedulers are under a lot of pressure to make the most of the space while maintaining a good level of patient care.

Inefficient scheduling (which can be caused by a breakdown in liaising between surgeons and schedulers on surgical plans, case times, and other requirements) can result in expensive idle time between cases, significant overtime costs, and increased patient anxiety due to surgery delays or rescheduling.

Many things can go wrong during the manual process, from surgeons calculating case time for each surgery to schedulers picking the necessary procedures, coordinating all resources, and accurately conveying the schedule back to the surgeons.

It's difficult to arrange the numerous parties involved, manage personnel requirements, track potential conflicts, and guarantee that the deadline is followed when there are as many as 150 data points in one surgery. Furthermore, without transparency earlier in the scheduling process, schedulers and groups find it difficult to pool and collaboratively optimize unused operating room time, which often happens after it's too late.

The efficiency and precision of these procedures are reduced when they rely on manual estimation and a small number of independent schedulers. Not to mention that manually updating everyone on schedule changes is inconvenient, but failing to get all of the employees, tools, and supplies in place can debilitate treatment outcomes, as well as costlier delays, cancellations, and lower patient satisfaction.

By Using OR Scheduling Software, you can overcome OR Scheduling Challenges

Surgeons require a more efficient and reliable method of communicating complex surgical plans, deadlines, and resource requirements to schedulers in order for them to properly manage the many interlocking components. Here's why operating room scheduling software is becoming more popular, and how it might help your practice:

1. Clear communication between the surgeon and the scheduler reduces misunderstandings and ensures that the appropriate staff, materials, and resources are in place.
2. A cloud-based platform provides real-time updates to all parties involved, reducing errors and delays caused by schedule changes.
3. Algorithms analyze similar surgeries and provide accurate case time estimates to help optimize resource utilization while maintaining a positive patient experience.
4. Cross-disciplinary collaboration to improve treatment outcomes is made easier by effective coordination among the numerous professionals engaged.
5. You may prioritize and organize action items to follow up and reschedule cases more efficiently with the ability to better handle cancelled surgeries.
6. Gaining greater visibility into your scheduling procedures allows you to maintain control and swiftly resolve pipeline concerns.
7. Sharing of underutilized operating room resources is facilitated by better visibility earlier in the scheduling process across the practice.
8. The expense of needing to line up surplus capacity to accommodate unanticipated conditions can be reduced with better planning and resource allocation.