iQueue for Operating Rooms Case Study – The University of Kansas Health System

Surgeons at TUKHS’ main campus in Kansas City consistently struggled with gaining sufficient access to operating room time to perform their cases. Scheduling challenges were compounded by a high number of last minute add on cases and inefficient use of space and resources. Additionally, there were limited formal block management policies in place to best utilize OR time or to find unused/underutilized time. Without access to credible, defensible data to support block reallocation decisions, OR leadership struggled to reclaim and repurpose unused block time. Furthermore, leadership and department chairs did not have access to the data and thus little visibility into the root causes of access and utilization problems.

TUKHS selected iQueue for Operating Rooms to gain access to a powerful and usable window into their block utilization and other key performance indicators and to provide decision makers with easy access to the metrics that matter. iQueue would enable them to identify open time in the OR sooner, show which block owners have excess allocation, and proactively zero-in on opportunities for further operational improvement. Access to the data, from a “single source of truth” that all stakeholders could trust and rely on, would help the surgical department build structure around block management practices and policies. Using these insights from iQueue, TUKHS could increase OR utilization, leverage new block reallocation opportunities to recruit surgeons, and improve efficiency in OR workflows.

iQueue data would also help address another priority for TUKHS leadership enabling OR leadership to develop stronger relationships with surgeons and department chairs. These stakeholders could engage with department metrics and together, fostering better communications and transparency as they worked toward clear common goals. Giving surgeons access to their own data would also motivate them to improve their own metrics, improving satisfaction as they saw immediate results from their choices around usage.