Can ORs reasonably be targeted for turnover time reduction based simply on having > 8 hr cases?
Turnover time reduction should be targeted to ORs for which the reductions will result in increases in the efficiency of use of OR time. Click here for a review article. Click here for a lecture explaining why those are the ORs for which turnover time reduction may facilitate an increase in numbers of cases performed. However, because of psychological biases, some facilities do not calculate staffing months in advance (i.e., choose the hours into which cases are scheduled) based on the efficiency of use of OR time. Click here for a review article. The facilities may still want to implement some evidence-based decision-making on the day of surgery. Unfortunately, no meaningful economic benefit can be achieved from reducing OR task durations without choosing the hours into which cases are scheduled by applying the corresponding newsvendor optimization. See the preceding review articles and lecture. Nothing from a cost perspective in OR management is more important than this step. Impleme
