Are you trying to get the most out of your operating rooms? If so, you need to think carefully about how you set up the schedule. There are plenty of surgeries that take place in a hospital every day. You need to make sure you have room for as many procedures as possible. You also need to prioritize ones that need to get done sooner rather than later. With all of this in mind, how can you use operating room scheduling software to help you? What are a few factors you should consider when you set up your operating room schedule? Take a look at the list below, and reach out to a professional if you need help setting up your operating room schedule.
The Number of Operating Rooms You Have
First, you need to think about the number of operating rooms you have. How many total operating rooms do you have in the hospital? There are some hospitals that only have a few operating rooms, while other hospitals have dozens of them. You need to think about how many rooms you have, and you need to think about how big they are. There are some procedures, such as brain surgery cases, that take a tremendous amount of space. Just because a procedure will fit in one operating room does not necessarily mean that it will fit in another operating room. Make sure you understand what procedures can fit in certain rooms.
The Spread of the Procedures You Offer
Next, you need to think about the spread of the procedures you offer. There are some hospitals that handle emergency procedures. There are other hospitals that can handle urgent procedures. Some hospitals also do elective procedures. There is a good chance that your hospital does all three of these procedures, but how many procedures do you do in each category? This will help you figure out how to arrange the procedures accordingly. You want to minimize the number of procedures that get bumped during the course of the day. This is important for keeping your surgeons, your patients, and your staff members happy. Then carefully about where you put what procedures.
Potential Emergency Operations
Of course, you need to think about potential emergency operations. As the name suggests, it can be difficult to predict when an emergency is going to come up. At the same time, you need to be ready when an emergency arises. If you have an emergency procedure, where is it going to go? What room do you want to put it in? What procedure do you want to bump? It can be difficult to predict when an emergency will happen, but you may want to take a look at what is happening in the emergency room and surrounding hospitals. That way, you may get a feel about whether you will have an emergency that day.
Your Historical Data
Finally, you should take a look at your historical information. Even though it can be difficult to predict how many procedures you have to do next week, you might be able to get a good idea of this by taking a look at historical information. How many procedures did you perform last week? How many procedures did you perform last month? This can give you some idea of what to expect. If you can predict what will happen next, you will have an easier time arranging your operating room schedule. Fortunately, this is not something you have to do on your own. A software program can help you do a lot of this.
Set Up Your Operating Room Schedule
These are just a few of the most important factors you need to think about when you are setting up your operating room schedule. You need to think carefully about how you establish your schedule. Of course, you want to complete as many procedures every day as you can. On the other hand, you need to think about potential emergencies that could bump some of your procedures. Make sure you differentiate between emergent, urgent, and elective procedures. This will make it easier for you to figure out what procedure goes where, and you can keep your surgeons in the loop.