Why is the OR workload not routinely predicted or monitored on a short-term basis?
Short-term prediction or monitoring of the total hours of cases including turnovers (i.e., OR workload) seems of little value, based on the decisions that can be made with the information. One decision is the allocation of additional OR time tactically (i.e., blocks). The decision should be based on financial data, availability of ICU beds, etc., not unusual OR workloads. Click here for the abstract of a review and click here for the corresponding paper. For solutions, click here for the most recent abstract, click here for the corresponding paper, click here for the lecture. Another decision is service-specific staffing, which refers to the maximum hours of cases to be scheduled into each OR and to be used for releasing allocated OR time. Service-specific staffing should be calculated using statistical methods that are insensitive to the effect of days with unusually large or small OR workloads. Click here for a review article. A third decision is the choice of afternoon staffing. At
