Tampa General gets big results with OR optimization platform

In just 10 months, the analytics initiative helped the hospital rack up nearly 700 hours of productivity saved for clinicians, nurses, administrators and staff. It's also fostered safer surgical environments with fewer surgical site infections.

Tampa General Hospital's surgical teams lacked up-to-date, complete data about what was actually happening inside their operating rooms.

Without this timely information, staff needed to make critical scheduling and efficiency decisions with little concrete data to guide them. These data challenges created a ripple effect, and surgeries were often delayed, as well. As all operating room staff know, when one surgery runs over schedule, it impacts the entire day.

The Florida hospital also struggled with extended turnover times, which measure the period between one patient exiting the OR (otherwise known as "wheels-out") and the next patient entering (or "wheels-in"). During this break, the team must properly disinfect and rearrange the room and set the specific equipment and supplies to prepare for the next case.

It's important this period be long enough to do this critical work, but also not so long as to waste time and delay wheels-in.

"Addressing the main causes of our delays and long turnover times was the real challenge, since our teams had limited insight into what exactly was the main source of the bottlenecks," said Kate Ulrich, senior vice president of perioperative services at Tampa General Hospital.

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