Perioperative Services
Perioperative services drive nearly half of a hospital’s revenue and a corresponding portion of expenses, yet they are among the most organizationally complex areas of the hospital.
ECG offers deep experience in assisting hospitals to improve operational performance in perioperative services. Many of our consultants are experts in this area and have assisted numerous hospitals in achieving lasting improvements in throughput, efficiency, and patient and physician satisfaction. Two characteristics set us apart from other consulting firms:
- With our background in assisting with hospital/physician relationships, ECG fundamentally understands the importance of physician engagement in the OR. Our approach incorporates hospital/physician collaboration in the improvement process and establishes procedures and structures along the way to ensure that such collaboration continues as a normal course of business.
- We approach perioperative improvement efforts with focused attention to your organization’s broader strategic context. While aspects of surgery performance improvement are technical in nature, we have found the results to be more impactful and lasting when technical expertise is combined with careful consideration of organizational strategy.
ECG can assist you with performance improvement in the following perioperative services areas:
- Comprehensive review and benchmarking of perioperative services.
- Development of performance dashboards.
- Improvement in OR throughput and efficiency via block scheduling and OR utilization, preoperative patient preparation processes, on-time starts, and room turnover.
- Capacity planning.
- Labor efficiency.
- Perioperative governance.
- Supply cost reduction and inventory management.
- Anesthesia practice assessment and improvement.
- Planning for and implementation of perioperative information systems.
Selected Projects
Conducting a comprehensive assessment of perioperative operations. Expand Minimize
ECG assisted a large community hospital with a complete review of surgical services, including an evaluation of throughput and efficiency, a detailed examination of OR access issues, a review of scheduling policies and procedures, a review of departmental operating policies and procedures, an assessment of OR governance and leadership structures, and an evaluation of supply management and procedures involved with the introduction of new products. The resulting findings and recommendations were used to implement improvements in surgical service efficiency, process standardization, and service outcomes aimed at supporting the organization’s long-term strategic vision and adding surgical volume.
Identifying improvement opportunities in surgical efficiency, throughput, and governance. Expand Minimize
In response to aggressive competition from freestanding ambulatory surgical centers, a community hospital sought ECG’s assistance in improving its competitiveness in surgical services in order to meet the service expectations of local surgeons while balancing resource utilization. We conducted a rapid review of perioperative work flows and stakeholder perceptions, which resulted in 10 specific and realistic recommendations for improvement. As a result of our assistance, the hospital is implementing strategies to improve OR governance, process standardization, hospital/physician alignment, automation of previously manual processes, staff education, and service line growth – all aimed at enhancing its competitiveness in an increasingly challenging market.
Conducting a complete review of surgical services. Expand Minimize
Due to increasing concerns about surgery operating efficiencies and service level outcomes, a community hospital asked ECG to conduct a thorough review of surgical services. Our assessment included analyzing OR efficiency and throughput, assessing OR leadership structures, and evaluating service levels provided to patients and referring physicians. Findings and resulting action plans focused on OR governance; physician engagement in OR leadership; specific improvement efforts related to on-time starts, block scheduling and utilization, and room turnaround times; and ongoing performance monitoring using targeted outcomes and a comprehensive performance dashboard. Furthermore, we assisted with the chartering of a new multidisciplinary OR governance committee charged with primary oversight responsibility for the OR practice and operations.
Developing a supply and demand model and recommendations for the number of ORs needed to support projected volumes. Expand Minimize
ECG assisted a hospital in determining how many ORs and associated support spaces would be needed to meet surgical supply and demand over the next 10 years. Our supply and demand model for surgical services analyzed projected volumes in total and by specialty. The modeling allowed for conservative, moderate, and aggressive scenarios and addressed demographics and patient preference, physician supply and practice patterns, operational and process-related factors, technology, and regulatory and reimbursement issues. The result of our modeling included recommendations for the number of ORs and associated support spaces to accommodate the projected volumes based on population growth (conservative scenario), Certificate of Need (CON) projections (moderate scenario), and future strategic planning objectives (aggressive scenario).
