Operating room (OR) efficiency is a key driver of both clinical and financial performance in healthcare, with ORs generating up to 70% of hospital revenue and up to 40% of expenses. The opportunity is clear, but past attempts to enhance OR efficiency often focused on isolated problems within the perioperative system—like early block release and access to open time—which might yield short-term gains but don’t address the systemic needs for long-term success.
True optimization requires a holistic approach that integrates consistent block management, proactive case coordination, and strategic staff planning. Leveraging an AI-powered platform like iQueue for Operating Rooms combined with ongoing expert support enable healthcare organizations to match OR supply and demand with precision, streamline workflows, and enhance ROI by transforming perioperative operations into synchronized, high-efficiency systems.
The three interconnected pillars of optimization
Optimizing surgical operations hinges on seamlessly coordinating three key pillars: rooms, cases, and staff. Ensuring that the right resources, equipment, and personnel are available based on variable patient demand is complex, requiring advanced math and predictive capabilities to match supply accurately and proactively. Given the unpredictable nature of healthcare demand and the interdependent tasks involved in each surgery—from pre-admission testing to day-before planning—any misalignment can lead to cascading inefficiencies and lost revenue.
Pillar 1: Block schedule management
Effective block management is a cornerstone of maximizing OR resources. Many hospitals struggle with inefficient block allocation and a “scarcity mindset” among providers, where surgical teams retain unutilized block time out of concern they might lose access in the future. This leads to underutilization and limits access for other providers. By releasing unused time proactively and making data-driven reallocation decisions, iQueue’s advanced scheduling tools support hospitals in optimizing block utilization and ensuring that OR time reflects actual demand. This not only enhances access but also mitigates the “hoarding” behavior that prevents the effective use of ORs across departments.
The University of Kansas Health System (TUKHS) faced challenges with limited block management policies, which made it difficult for surgeons to access the OR time they needed and for leadership to reclaim and optimize unused block time. iQueue provided TUKHS with valuable data-derived insights and a “single source of truth” to track OR utilization and identify inefficiencies. This led to improved block allocation and enhanced transparency among stakeholders, fostering a more collaborative environment. As a result, TUKHS achieved a 20% increase in block utilization, a 5% rise in prime time utilization, and an 8% growth in case volume despite a 7% reduction in available capacity, all within just one year.
Pillar 2: Case planning
The complexity of case planning goes beyond simple scheduling—it requires a dynamic, data-driven approach to coordinate resources, align with patient needs, and streamline surgical workflows. Traditional case coordination methods can lead to communication breakdowns that result in scheduling conflicts, delays, and patient dissatisfaction. iQueue enhances real-time visibility and provides a centralized platform for preoperative coordination, enabling perioperative leaders to ensure that all necessary resources, from staff to surgical supplies, are readily available. By forecasting case duration accurately, iQueue minimizes delays and optimizes scheduling to enhance operational flow and improve patient outcomes.
OhioHealth’s Bone and Joint Center at Grant Medical Center struggled with scheduling inefficiencies and inaccurate case length estimations, which led to overbooked cases, staff burnout, and high overtime costs. By implementing iQueue, OhioHealth gained better insights into actual case times and staffing needs through the Case Length Accuracy (CLA) tool, which provided more precise scheduling data. Within two months, this tool enabled OhioHealth to increase case length accuracy by 6%, achieve a total improvement of 20% in CLA, and reach 70% accuracy in case predictions within a 15-minute window, ultimately enhancing scheduling efficiency and reducing staff strain.
At Cone Health, a lack of visibility into the OR schedule and disjointed communication made it challenging to manage its 4,000 monthly surgeries. iQueue provided a mobile-based feature called Real-Time View to encourage collaboration and optimize surgical case coordination. Through the feature, staff and vendors could now instantly view case schedules on their mobile devices, eliminating multiple calls/texts and enabling quick, informed decisions. Through this feature and others, Cone Health saved their nurses more than an hour a day and reduced vendor calls by 98%.
Pillar 3: Staff planning
OR efficiency is intrinsically linked to effective staff planning. Traditional staffing models often fall short, with schedules that cannot adapt to changing OR needs, leading to overstaffing or critical shortages. iQueue leverages AI-driven forecasts to align staffing requirements with actual OR schedules, ensuring each team member’s skills match the day’s surgical needs. This strategic approach prevents delays due to staffing shortages, reduces burnout, and allows hospitals to maintain a well-prepared, engaged workforce capable of handling the complexities of OR demands.
Oregon Health & Science University’s (OHSU) Center for Health and Healing (CHH) faced staffing challenges due to a lack of centralized tools, relying instead on time-consuming, manual processes for daily staff assignments. Implementing iQueue streamlined the assignment process, provided real-time staff experience insights, and eliminated duplicate data entry. This enabled service line coordinators and nurse managers to make faster, more informed staffing decisions. In six months, OHSU was saving 20 hours per week for service line coordinators and 5 hours per week for charge nurses and nurse managers.
A holistic transformation model
The journey toward OR optimization extends beyond technology; it requires thoughtful change management, too. That’s why LeanTaaS brings together experts who have dedicated thousands of hours to building the iQueue product and who have decades of experience in perioperative services and change management. The “Transformation as a Service” (TaaS) that LeanTaaS provides, at no additional cost to our customers, offers comprehensive, ongoing support through a dedicated team who work closely with hospital staff, administrators, and other stakeholders to facilitate seamless adaptation to the new AI solution.
Through TaaS, hospitals benefit from continuous support, gaining the confidence to adopt data-driven decisions while establishing trust and transparency among OR stakeholders. This comprehensive approach aligns operational goals with OR performance metrics, driving long-term success and sustainable improvements across the perioperative landscape.
As the healthcare industry evolves and becomes more resilient to change, the time for fragmented solutions is over. A fully integrated approach, backed by AI and robust people-powered support, enables hospitals to realize their OR’s full potential.
To learn more about how to optimize your OR ecosystem and discover real-world success stories yielding impressive results from our customers, download our whitepaper.
Explore leading health system’s successful applications of iQueue for Operating Rooms here.
