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Decisions per day per operating room using surgical status display boards’ information for case scheduling and anesthesia staff assignment
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Decisions per day per operating room using surgical status display boards’ information for case scheduling and anesthesia staff assignment

Sarah S. Titler, Franklin Dexter and Bryan S. Brindeiro
Perioperative care and operating room management, Vol.44, 100735
09/2026
DOI: 10.1016/j.pcorm.2026.100735

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Abstract

There is currently incomplete data for reliable estimation of the economic value of purchasing hardware, and investing in computer programming for setup and maintenance, of status boards for operating room control desks. The goal of this project was to measure the mean number of decisions made per day for assigning cases to operating rooms. We performed a prospective observational study to count the decisions at an eight-room pediatric surgical suite. Decisions made were documented by the operating room manager. When a decision was made, data recorded were the number of rooms with ongoing case progress evaluated to make the decision. The recorded decision types were “moving case,” “assigning case with no previous room assignments,” or “assigning anesthesia staff.” Validity was evaluated by comparing the results with those of a two-year retrospective cohort of all cases performed in the same surgical suite. The prospective cohort quantified decisions made during N = 31 distinct days. There was a mean of 1.87 decisions per day for case assignment, with a 95% jackknife confidence interval of 1.36 to 2.57 decisions per day. There were, in addition, 1.35 staff assignment decisions daily. The decisions mostly depended on 1 or 2 of the maximum 8 rooms. The number of add-on cases and cancellations in the retrospective cohort exceeded the observed decisions of case assignment (P < 0.0001), supporting construct validity. Our primary result was a mean of 0.25 decisions affecting labor costs per operating room per day. The cost savings from displays would balance even the full-time cost of a programmer for a suite of 8 or more rooms.
 Models, Economic Operating Rooms / economics Operating Rooms / organization & administration Personnel Staffing and Scheduling / organization & administration Prospective Studies Retrospective Studies Software / economics

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