Affiliations: [a] Department of Information Engineering - Biomedical Lab, University of Florence, Italy | [b] Clinical Engineering, University of Florence, Italy | [c] Florence Teaching Hospital, Florence, Italy
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Roberto Miniati, Department of Information Engineering - Biomedical Lab., University of Florence, Via S. Marta 3, 50139 Florence, Italy. Tel.: +39 3286017001; E-mail:[email protected]
Abstract: BACKGROUND: The management and the monitoring of the operating
rooms on the part of the general management have the objective of optimizing
their use and maximizing the internal safety. The expenses owed to their
safe use represent, besides reimbursements coming from the surgical
activity, important factors for the analysis of the medical facility. OBJECTIVE: Given that it is not possible to reduce the safety, it
is necessary to develop supporting systems with the aim to enhance and
optimize the use of the rooms. METHODS: The developed analysis model of the operating rooms in
this study is based on the specific performance indicators and allows the
effective monitoring of both the parameters that influence the safety
(environmental, microbiological parameters) and those that influence the
efficiency of the usage (employment rate, delays, necessary formalities,
etc.). This allows you to have a systematic dashboard on hand for all of the
OTs and, thus, organize the intervention schedules and more appropriate
improvements. RESULTS: A monitoring dashboard has been achieved, accessible from
any platform and any device, capable of aggregating hospital information.
The undertaken organizational modifications, through the use of the
dashboard, have allowed for an average annual savings of 29.52 minutes per
intervention and increase the use of the ORs of 5%. The increment of the
employment rate and the optimization of the operating room have allowed for
savings of around $299,88 for every intervention carried out in 2013,
corresponding to an annual savings of $343 362,60. CONCLUSIONS: Integration dashboards, as the one proposed in this
study as a prototype, represent a governance model of economically
sustainable healthcare systems capable of guiding the hospital management in
the choices and in the implementation of the most efficient organizational
modifications.
