Case Study: Optimizing Patient Services With Electronic Surgery Scheduling

Effective surgery scheduling is a major component of any hospital. Unfortunately, operating room (OR) management can be a logistical nightmare. Rooms have to be secured and housed with the right equipment for specific surgeries. Specialized equipment, if needed, has to be acquired, and allergy-related precautions have to be prepared. Without accurate scheduling, a delayed or mismanaged surgery can result in the net loss of tens of thousands of dollars. If a planned surgery doesn't take place for some reason, equipment that is pulled out of storage has to be stripped down, re-sterilized, and re-packaged, and a last-minute cancellation or ‘no show' may result in additional costs for unnecessary staffing.

These criteria were particularly applicable to a Pennsylvania medical center located near Harrisburg. Approximately 450 surgeries are performed at the facility every week—almost 100 per day. To accommodate demand, the medical center has twenty operating rooms, one of which is an outpatient surgery area. Twenty-two departments throughout the hospital can schedule surgeries.

Benefits

• Elimination of lost, misplaced, or duplicate scheduling forms
• Elimination of paper and faxes
• Increased patient and department satisfaction
• Virtual elimination of follow-up phone calls