The Right Tools: Getting Better Data to Make Better Decisions for Better Results

As a leader of a high-cost and high-revenue center for your facility, you are increasingly under pressure to save money while improving productivity, quality of care and patient safety.

To do this you must have a way to ensure efficient planning and scheduling of resources, while being able to break down the barriers that prevent data sharing and subsequent conversation about key metrics.

Getting there is the challenge, shares Janice Kelly, MS, RN-BC, President, AORN Syntegrity, Inc.

“Even the most high-tech and well-respected perioperative departments have challenges with collecting and sharing data to understand where problem areas are and if decisions to move the mark are achieving true improvement.”

She says two important choices can help.

Decision #1: Choose the Right Data

To achieve the right marriage of data collection, analysis and sharing for sound decision-making, be very deliberate in identifying the key workflow efficiencies that will have the greatest impact on productivity in your ORs, Kelly suggests.

Here are her top 5 workflow efficiencies to measure for maximum results:

1. On-time start— A case that starts at the scheduled time with zero minutes of delay. Standardize the delay minutes as much as possible to maximize the value of the data points.
2. Turnover time—The elapsed time in minutes from previous patient leaving room to the succeeding patient arriving in the room. This time includes clean-up and set-up time but excludes scheduled delays between cases, which should also be defined and monitored.
3. Same day cancellation rates—Tracking cancellations can be an important way to track and control resource costs.
4. Case duration accuracy—This measurement can support patient safety, cost savings and staff satisfaction.
5. Medical supply costs per case— This allows you to monitor costs per specialty and surgeon.

Inefficiencies in scheduling and OR care delivery processes have a negative impact on quality, patient safety, patient, staff and surgeon satisfaction, and leads to financial waste, Kelly acknowledges.

“Time is an OR’s most valuable resource. A slight delay in a case-start time or wasted minutes looking for a piece of missing equipment can hinder efficiency and the ability to maintain a positive margin.”

Decision#2: Choose the Right Electronic System

“Perioperative leaders know these are the key efficiency data points to measure—the trick is finding the right electronic system to capture these data in a way that produces accurate and easy-to-share analysis,” Kelly shares.

She suggests these 3 key characteristics a perioperative electronic system should have to enable data collection, analysis and dissemination:

1. Your electronic system should validate and benchmark your key efficiency data within a single, secure data warehouse.
   Perioperative leaders are looking to benchmark their performance measures to leaders in a particular area or similar hospitals. Benchmarking is a continuous quality improvement to implement best practices at the best cost to improve your processes. It can also help stimulate healthy competition. Good sources for benchmarks include quality collaboratives, professional associations, federal agencies, healthcare IT vendors, and others.




2. Your system should be available via an online dashboard with efficiency data that is curated for easy access.
   Dashboards have become an emerging best practice to monitor high priority workflow efficiencies in operating rooms. These dashboards should convey core performance metrics derived from trusted data that is readily available in OR information systems and relevant to what is being measured. Visual display tools allow users to quickly identify variations and act accordingly.




3. Your system should allow your curated data to be shared easily in a way that engages surgeons and other OR leaders to see improvements as well as areas to target to remain competitive.
   Having the right electronic tools with visual aids improves the process of monitoring performance measures. Uniform data and indicator definitions are necessary because variations in operational definitions and the type of data that are measured lack standardization and pose a challenge for accurate comparisons, as well as external benchmarking.

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