Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

43 Executive Briefing Beyond the room turnover kits, Advance Medical Designs offers hospitals an OR audit program that assesses OR cleaning procedures while providing onsite training on proper cleaning protocols. The program also offers hospitals analysis of infection control processes to ensure progress toward infection control goals and that patient rooms are cleaned in accordance with recommendations set by the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses. Decreasing OR turnover time The OR is one of the most critical and sensitive areas of a hospital's operation. It contributes to staff workload and hospital revenue while presenting numerous challenges to maintaining high quality patient care and preventing dangerous infections. For an OR to be efficient, hospitals must juggle case scheduling, staff allocation, equipment use, surgery performance and preparation of the area for the next patient. If hospitals are unable to efficiently manage the OR, patients may face long waiting lists or case cancellations. An OR's overall efficiency can be significantly burdened by minor delays in starting a case and lengthy turnover times. Turnovers are not the same as delays. Turnovers are less than one hour while delays exceed an hour. Long turnover times in the OR can lead to dissatisfied surgeons, who often see turnovers as time during which they could complete other OR cases. As a result, many hospitals focus on reducing turnover time to improve OR efficiency. By providing disposable OR products and addressing existing infection control protocols and turnaround times, the Advance Room Turnover program helped Alamance Regional Medical Center, a 238-bed hospital in Burlington, N.C., decrease OR turnover times while increasing surgeon and patient satisfaction. Alamance Regional Medical Center chose to implement Advance Room Turnover to boost patient safety efforts and efficiently dispose of each OR product, said Tracey Chaney, BSN, RN, assistant director of operative services at the hospital. Since hospital staff can more efficiently dispose of OR products included in the room turnover kit, the facility saw decreases in turnover time, Ms. Chaney said. "The biggest positive change we've seen from using the kits is that our turnover times decreased from 30 minutes to right at 15 to 20 minutes," she said. Additionally, having OR equipment such as disposable table covers, string mops and drawtape bags in one room turnover kit helped OR staff spend less time finding and gathering items, thereby helping to minimize inefficiency during room turnover. "Having everything contained in one kit has been the best thing for our OR," Ms. Chaney said. "Staff do not have to locate the linen and trash bags or mop head, because they're all contained in one readily available bag." Prolonging OR equipment life while ensuring standardized care ORs are one of the most expensive areas of hospital operations. With healthcare organizations facing a growing number of financial pressures related to declining reimbursement and other factors, hospital leaders should reexamine OR operations to identify possible avoidable costs. To determine the cost of one minute of OR time as well as what contributes to this cost, a recent study published in JAMA Surgery looked at financial disclosures from comparable short- term general and specialty care hospitals in California. The researchers found the mean cost of OR time in fiscal year 2014 for the acute care hospitals included in the study was $36 to $37 per minute; $20 to $21 of this amount was associated with direct cost, with $13 to $14 attributable to wages and benefits and $2.50 to $3.50 attributable to surgical supplies. Not every OR will cost $37 per minute, but hospitals can look to incorporate products that help reduce costs by prolonging the life of their OR equipment. For Alamance Regional Medical Center, the disposable products included in the Advance Room Turnover system cut costs on various OR items, including linens. Furthermore, by using a system of disposable, one-time use items, hospitals can better protect and preserve operating tables and mattresses. "The system helped us limit the number of linens we have to purchase, decreasing our expenses for these items," Ms. Chaney said. By using products that can be discarded after each patient use and better protecting OR equipment, hospital staff can ensure all patients are receiving the same standard of care, helping to minimize their risk of contracting harmful infections during their hospital stay. The fight to eliminate SSIs Infection control products focused on room turnover can help reduce OR turnover time, save money on costly equipment replacements, extend the life of the OR beds and ensure every patient receives high-quality care in a standard, controlled setting. For hospital leaders, being aware of the potential consequences of SSIs on patient health and care costs and continually working to improve OR practices is critical to ensuring their facility is controlling infections and generating the best patient outcomes they possibly can. For more information on the Advance Room Turnover program, visit advancemedicaldesigns.com. n A leader in Infection Control Products, Advance Medical Designs, Inc is a manufacturer of dis- posable infection control products focused on hospital OR's and ambulatory surgery centers. Founded in 1984, Advance Medical Designs' corporate office and manufacturing facilities are located in Marietta, Georgia.

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