Improving OR Turnover to Boost Surgical Workflows and Drive Revenue

Integrated clinical collaboration speeds OR turnover

The Operating Room (OR) is a key success metric of any hospital – with the OR average operating room costing $21 – $133 per minute, it’s imperative to hospital revenue that OR costs are kept low. Speeding OR turnover time between surgeries can be an easy way to maximize OR efficiency, and this can be achieved simply by improving communication between care team members. 

Hospitals typically characterize turnover time in the OR as the time from when the wheels of a patient’s bed exit the operating room from one surgery to the time when the wheels of the next patient’s bed enter the operating room for the next procedure. Inefficiency during this process can cost the hospital. Slow OR turnover can not only lead to delayed surgeries, which directly impacts the hospital’s revenue. Hospitals must be squarely focused on streamlining that number and decreasing delays in patient perioperative movement, first-case start times, and room turnover. But to fully understand these challenges, it’s important to understand the OR workflow process. 

Understanding OR workflows 

A typical OR workflow covers everything from pre-op procedures to intra and post-op patient care. Each step is critical to ensure successful patient outcomes and eliminate confusion, streamline inefficiencies, ease provider workload, and minimize costs. At the top of the workflow is direct communication between registration and the pre-op nurse. Here, critical data is entered into the Electronic Health Record (EHR), and the operating room is prepped for surgery.  

From there, communication becomes even more critical as the patient enters the OR, and coordination happens between nurses, surgeons, and anesthesiologists. At this stage, everything is documented and entered in the EHR. Timing and real-time communication only get more important from there during both Intra-Op and Post-Op stages. Surgeons are mobilized, critical records are recorded, and room cleaning and turnover staff are notified.  

At every stage, efficient and seamless communication is crucial, as any mistake or delay can impact patient care and the hospital’s revenue.  

The power of integrated, secure clinical communication 

Solutions like the TigerConnect Clinical Collaboration Platform are designed to address these challenges, enabling real-time, role-based communication, protecting patient information, streamlining workflows, and minimizing errors. With TigerConnect, OR Transitions workflows empower clinicians to send the right OR event updates to the right people at the right time. For example, when a patient’s registration is documented in the EHR, a TigerConnect message is automatically sent to the pre-op nurse. When the patient is placed in Pre-Op and documented in the EHR, a TigerConnect group message is automatically created to inform the anesthesiologist, surgeon, and circulating RN. Each documented event can automatically trigger a message to ensure everyone is ready to start the case and that the case is completed and ready for room turnover.  

The benefits of these solutions in an OR setting are undeniable. Automating OR Transitions Workflows with TigerConnect can reduce the workflow from 2.1 to 1.8 hours. Using TigerConnect, hospitals have been able to significantly reduce OR turnover time after surgery is complete. This added OR capacity has the potential to boost hospital revenue upwards of $100,000. 

Unlocking the power of clinical communication and collaboration 

Streamlined clinical communication and collaboration has proven its value – for both the patient and hospital. The ability to simplify OR turnover has proven not only to reduce confusion and frustration among surgeons and patients – but is a significant benchmark for achieving higher hospital revenues. But the road isn’t always easy. Accelerated OR workflows rely on seamless communication across care teams. Unfortunately, inefficient communication is often the root cause of poor workflows and slow patient turnover in the OR. Schedule a demo to learn how TigerConnect can help you get started on the right path. 

Ryan Bush, MSN, RN-BC, Clinical Nurse Consultant

Ryan Bush is a Clinical Nurse Consultant at TigerConnect with over 14 years of experience in a variety of healthcare roles including bedside nurse, clinical applications analyst and most recently a manager of nursing informatics for the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, OH. Ryan holds a Masters and board certification in the field of Nursing Informatics.

Tags: TigerConnect Clinical Communication and Collaboration, OR Efficiency, Patient Workflow Patient Turnover, Operating Room Efficiency, Operating Room Workflow, patient throughput, Clinical Communication and Collaboration