Journal article
Most surgeons' daily elective lists in Florida comprise only 1 or 2 elective cases, making percent utilization unreliable for planning individual surgeons' block time
Journal of clinical anesthesia, Vol.75, pp.110432-110432
12/2021
DOI: 10.1016/j.jclinane.2021.110432
Abstract
Operating room (OR) utilization has been shown in multiple studies to be an inappropriate metric for planning OR time for individual surgeons. Among surgeons with low daily caseloads, percentage utilization cannot be measured accurately because confidence limits are extremely wide. In Iowa, a largely rural state, most surgeons performed only 1 or 2 elective cases on their OR days. To assess generalizability, we analyzed Florida, a state with many high-population density areas.
Observational cohort study.
The 602 facilities in Florida that performed inpatient or outpatient elective surgery from January 2010 through December 2019.
The providers licensed to perform surgery in Florida (physician, oral surgeons, dentists, and podiatrists) were identified by their national provider number. Hospitals were deidentified before analysis.
The primary endpoint was the mean among facilities in percentages of surgeon-day combinations (“lists”) containing 1 or 2 cases. Proportions were calculated using Freeman-Tukey transformation and the harmonic mean of the number of lists at each facility. Comparison to “most” (>50%) used Student's two-sided one-group t-test.
Averaging among hospitals, most surgeons' lists included 1 or 2 cases (64.4%; 99% confidence interval [CI] 61.3%–67.4%) P < 0.00001). Many lists had 1 case (44.2%, 99% CI 41.2%–47.2%). Nearly all (96.7%) surgeons operated at just one hospital on their OR days.
Most surgeons' lists of elective surgical cases comprised 1 or 2 cases in the largely urban state of Florida, as previously found in the largely rural state of Iowa. Results were insensitive to organizational size or county population. Thus, our finding is generalizable in the United States. Consequently, neither adjusted nor raw utilization should be used solely when allocating OR time to individual surgeons. Anesthesia and nursing coverage of cases can be based on maximizing the efficiency of use of OR time.
•Percent utilization of block time is often reported, despite its lack of utility.•Utilization cannot be accurately calculated for surgeons with low daily caseloads.•Most surgeons in Florida have daily elective lists with only 1 or 2 cases.•Allocation of block time to surgeons should not be based on percentage utilization.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Most surgeons' daily elective lists in Florida comprise only 1 or 2 elective cases, making percent utilization unreliable for planning individual surgeons' block time
- Creators
- Richard H Epstein - Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative Medicine & Pain Management, University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine, 1400 NW 12th Avenue, Suite 4022, Miami, Florida 33136, United States of AmericaFranklin Dexter - Division of Management Consulting, Department of Anesthesia, University of Iowa, 200 Hawkins Drive, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, United States of AmericaBrenda G Fahy - Department of Anesthesiology, University of Florida College of Medicine, 1600 SW Archer Road, Gainesville, FL 32608, United States of AmericaChristian Diez - Perioperative Medicine & Pain Management, University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine, 1611 NW 12th Avenue, Central Building, Suite C300, Miami, Florida 33136, United States of America
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of clinical anesthesia, Vol.75, pp.110432-110432
- Publisher
- Elsevier Inc
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jclinane.2021.110432
- ISSN
- 0952-8180
- eISSN
- 1873-4529
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 12/2021
- Academic Unit
- Health Management and Policy; Anesthesia
- Record Identifier
- 9984107615902771
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