Monitoring operating room turnaround time: a retrospective analysis

Purpose : Operating room (OR) turnaround time is a key process indicator for hospital business management: delays lead to a reduced surgical interventions per day with a consequent increase in costs and decrease in efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to increase understanding by assessing the process’ steady-state behaviour and identifying changes that indicate either improvement or deterioration in quality. Design/methodology/approach: With this purpose, the authors retrospectively applied Shewhart control charts and exponentially weighted moving average control charts to data extracted from an hospital information system. Findings: The results showed that statistical process control is able to identify steady-state behaviour process and to detect positive or negative changes in process performance. In particular the authors detected a deterioration in the process performance coinciding with the change in the operating room patient transfer staff. Practical implications: This study showed that statistical quality control is a valuable tool for monitoring performance indicators. Currently, hospital managers are designing an OR dashboard which also includes the control charts. Originality/value: The paper highlights the control chart application to organizational indicators allowing an objective OR system performance assessment.