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Transform Webinar

Unlocking Surgical Volume: Strategies for Improving OR Capacity through Data-Driven Decisions

Speakers

Matt Shields_Memorial Hermann
Matthew Shields
Director of Hospital Operations, Memorial Hermann TMC
Huralain Lakku_Memorial Hermann
Huralain Lakku
Manager of Hospital Operations, Memorial Hermann TMC

Summary

Knowing how and where to allocate block time is a notoriously challenging problem to solve for perioperative leaders. Time in the operating room (OR) is a finite resource, and nearly every surgeon leader has a need for additional block time. Even when surgical service lines or surgeons receive requested block time, underutilization is common while simultaneously OR access is limited.  Traditional block allocation practices based on historical or flawed data rather than actual demand contribute to the disconnect between block time and utilization.  

Join Memorial Hermann TMC’s Director and Manager of Hospital Operations to learn how leveraging the power of AI-driven technology empowered them to break through block allocation barriers and unlock OR access through data-driven insights.  

Learning Objectives:

  • Discuss common challenges with allocating OR block time and managing OR access for surgeons.
  • Explain how traditional block allocation practices relying on historical or flawed data can lead to underutilization and limited OR access. 
  • Demonstrate how leveraging AI-driven analytics and data-driven insights can optimize block time allocation and improve OR access and utilization.

Results

4%Relative increase in case volume
12%Relative increase in staffed room utilization
13%Relative increase in block utilization

Related resources

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Chapter 1: The Looming Challenge

If you work in the healthcare industry, or even if you’re just an interested observer, you don’t need a book to tell you that the financial pressure is on as never before. A perfect storm of circumstances is swirling together, one that will make survivability, not to mention profitability, a greater challenge for healthcare companies than we’ve seen in the modern era.

As with banks, retailers, and airlines, which had to rapidly enhance their brick-and-mortar footprints with robust online business models—it is the early movers eager to gain new efficiencies that will thrive and gain market share. The slow-to-move and the inefficient will end up being consolidated into larger health systems seeking to expand their geographical footprints.

The pressures on healthcare

Let’s look at just a few of the looming challenges healthcare must meet head-on.

An aging population

By the year 2030, the number of adults sixty-five years of age or older will exceed the number of children eighteen years or younger in the United States. We are living longer than our parents did. Positive news for sure, but problematic for several reasons.

The older we get, the more medical help we need. Older people have more chronic diseases. By 2025, nearly 50 percent of the population will suffer from one or more chronic diseases that will require ongoing medical intervention. This combination of an aging population and an increase in chronic diseases will create a ballooning demand for healthcare services.

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