A Multipronged Approach to Optimising Theatre Utilisation has Improved Minute Utilisation by 10%
Operating Theatres have high fixed costs and significant downtime and at Cabrini Malvern utilisation was not being actively managed in a streamlined manner.
To improve their theatre utilisation Cabrini Malvern:
• Created Allocation of Elective Procedural Sessions: policy and procedure
• Offered surgeons elective sessions and outlined minimum expected session utilisation and process for underutilisation
• Developed QliKView report to visualise operational data from WebPAS
• Implemented a process for surgeons to share and swap sessions
• Increased theatre FTE aimed at shifting to a “yes” culture where cases are added during “off” hours
• Introduced “Shadow Lists” – a conscious overbooking of elective sessions in recognition of likely cancellations
Since Cabrini Malvern implemented their changes an improvement (approximately 10%) in theatre minute utilisation has been noted.