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Pediatric Plastic Surgery Operating Room Block-Time Utilization: A Casualty of Illness
Samantha G. Maliha MD MSCI, Erin E. Anstadt MD, Lucas A. Dvoracek MD, Jesse A. Goldstein MD, Joseph E. Losee MD
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
2020-02-12
Presenter: Samantha Maliha
Affidavit:
I certify that this work is the author's own original work.
Director Name: Vu Nguyen, MD
Author Category: Resident Plastic Surgery
Presentation Category: Clinical
Abstract Category: Craniomaxillofacial
Introduction:
Optimizing operating room (OR) utilization is a critical component of health care system efficiency. Few international institutions have analyzed OR cancellation for adult patients, yet there is a paucity of literature in pediatrics. The purpose of our study was to analyze the effect of OR cancellation on raw utilization of OR block time in the pediatric plastic surgery department of a children's hospital.
Methods:
We retrospectively reviewed cases of 4 plastic surgeons at a tertiary pediatric hospital between 2018-2019. Data collected included patient demographics, type of surgery, time of cancellation, reason for cancellation, length of surgery, and minutes of block time allotted to each surgeon per year.
Results:
Among all 4 surgeons, 28.2% of cases were cancelled, 37.2% of scheduled time was lost, and 21.3% of block time was lost due to cancellation over one year. Patients of surgeon A and D were more likely to cancel due to reasons classified as "other," such as failure of NPO or a last-minute decision to forego elective surgery (33.3% and 37.2%, respectively). Patients of surgeon B and C were more likely to cancel due to illness (67.9% and 36.4%, respectively). Notably, surgeon D had the highest rate of case cancellation (9.1%) and was most likely to perform procedures under local sedation without general anesthesia.
Conclusions:
OR utilization in the pediatric population is largely understudied. However, cancellations negatively impact raw utilization times. Future directions include exploring whether particular surgeon characteristics are linked to rate of cancellations.
