Success Stories

Dignity Health Sequoia Hospital Increased OR Block Utilization by 10 Percentage Points

10 Percentage point increase in block utilization

3 Percentage point increase in prime time room utilization

44% Decrease in minutes from entirely unused allocated blocks

2x Increase in released minutes

Summary

Dignity Health is the fifth-largest health system in the nation and the largest hospital provider in California. Its network of community hospitals spans California, Arizona, and Nevada and collectively includes over 250 operating rooms. Dignity Health’s Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City, California, is a 12 OR facility that serves the larger Peninsula community. As is the case for many community hospitals, Dignity Health Sequoia Hospital surgeons are not directly employed by the hospital, and perform their surgeries across multiple facilities.

Profile

5th largest health system in the US

250+ ORs throughout system of community hospitals

12 ORs at Dignity Health Sequoia Hospital

Problem

Historically surgeons found it difficult to find the time they needed to schedule cases at Dignity Health Sequoia Hospital, to the point where they would take their volume to competing hospitals. OR administration had no visibility into how well block time was actually being utilized, and whether any could realistically be repurposed, and therefore was unable to address the lack of available time by releasing blocks.

Solution

To address these issues, Dignity Health Sequoia Hospital partnered with LeanTaaS to deploy iQueue for Operating Rooms’ three modules across their 12 ORs.

iQueue’s Exchange module increased the total inventory of open time across Dignity Health Sequoia Hospital and exposed that inventory to the broader surgeon population, allowing those looking for time to easily find it and bring more of their individual case volume to the hospital.

The Collect module introduced a far more surgeon-centric way of thinking about how well block time is being used, and has helped OR administration re-purpose unused block time while leaving block owners enough time to meet their existing case volume. This methodology is now an established best practice for the Dignity Health Sequoia Hospital block committee meetings.

The Analyze module enhanced the visibility of key performance metrics in the OR, vastly improving the management team’s ability to monitor performance in a timely manner with credible data. It has also helped surgeons engage with their data, creating a culture of data-drivenness.

Dignity Health Corporate Leadership saw the immense benefit of iQueue for Operating Rooms at Dignity Health Sequoia Hospital, and ultimately made the decision to implement the product across 35 of its hospitals and 250+ ORs in California, Arizona, and Nevada.

I knew that using artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions, the point of iQueue was to solve for empty ORs and match with surgeons looking for block time. It seemed apples to apples with what we were trying to do with the technological support and foundation that we needed to scale and continue.

Brian Dawson

VP of Perioperative Systemness, DignityHealth (CommonSpirit)