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.
