Oregon Health & Science University Reduced Abandoned OR Blocks by 51%
25 Additional cases per month in prime time
5% Increase in staffed room utilization
5X Increase in block utilization
51% Reduction in abandoned blocks

Summary

Portland-based Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) – the only academic health center in Oregon – is dedicated to improving the health of all Oregonians and advancing the health sciences. Oregon Health & Science University focuses research to prevent and cure disease, on education that prepares healthcare professionals to succeed in an evolving environment, and on patient care that incorporates the latest knowledge and discoveries.

Profile

Only academic medical center in state

21,000 employees

576 beds at OHSU & Doernbecher Children's Hospital

36 ORs in OHSU

Problem

Oregon Health & Science University faced a shortage of available block time to allocate to new surgeons coming on board at its South Operating Rooms (SOR) and Doernbecher Children’s Hospital (DCH). Surgical services lacked visibility of available blocks; all block owners operated independently and there was no accountability for inefficient block owners. Compounding this, there was no “single source of truth” at Oregon Health & Science University; unclear metrics and the lack of standardized release times for blocks fomented a lack of trust in the performance metrics by which surgeons were being evaluated.

Solution

By deploying iQueue for Operating Rooms at SOR and DCH, Oregon Health & Science University hoped to improve access to the OR, increase the accountability of its surgeons for their use of allocated time, and add transparency through a set of objective performance metrics that eliminated ambiguity and built surgeon trust in their key performance indicators. A major thrust of the effort at Oregon Health & Science University was also to adopt a new framework for measuring OR utilization that focuses on collectable time – segments of time in which a case could have been scheduled but wasn’t – and on scheduled downtime to drive OR utilization upwards.

Since implementing iQueue for Operating Rooms, the Oregon Health & Science University ORs have experienced a steady decrease in collectable time, as surgeons proactively release time they know they cannot use so it can be claimed by others. iQueue data now supplements existing infrastructure, helping perioperative leaders determine when to proactively close ORs when a hospital is at high census. As a collaborative partner with LeanTaaS, Oregon Health & Science University has taken an active role in working with the LeanTaaS team to brainstorm and develop new features, including an Availability Alerts management portal feature to notify surgeons when the OR time they need becomes available.

iQueue is a far more scientific way of managing OR capacity and creating access to OR time, accountability for block time, and transparency into operating metrics. The changes to our core processes for release and request, block rightsizing, and transparency into the metrics is exactly what we needed. This is the future of OR capacity management.
Dio Sumagaysay
Associate Chief Nursing Officer, Perioperative Services & Multispecialty Procedure Units, Oregon Health & Science University

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