Research Article
Zandi R, Ebrahimpour A, Sajadi
Abstract
Background: The operating room (OR) is one of the most important hospital units, but wasted time negatively affects its efficiency. The need to provide timely patient care has prompted this assessment of the time is required to transfer patients to the OR. Patients and Methods: This study examined 382 patients undergoing orthopedic surgery in our orthopedic ward. Patient demographic information, mode of transfer, anesthesia type and surgery site were recorded. The time elapsed during the transfer of patients between stages was measured. Results: Time from the surgical team informing the OR staff about impending surgery and the orthopaedic ward being told to transfer the patient was 3.091±2.804 min. Furthermore, the time spent transferring patients from the orthopaedic ward to the OR was 27.622±17.198 min. The time of preparing the OR, administering anesthesia, patient preparation for surgery, surgical procedure, and transferring to the recovery room were 18.287±16.835 min, 23.785±32.498 min, 48.324±37.9 min, 85.790±61.859 min and 13.738±9.088 min, respectively. The patients spent 32.617±15.88 min in recovery room before transfer back to the ward. The type of anesthesia or surgery site was found not to be associated with the time elapsed at each stage. There was no significant relationship between the time required to transfer patients from the orthopaedic ward to the OR and the mode of transfer (gurney or wheelchair). Conclusions: The presence of trained staff for the proper turn-over of patients in the a department and in the OR, their cooperation, teamwork, interaction and careful monitoring of the staff in the OR and specialized training for the staff can decrease problems in this area.