For the first time, a study links operating room design to the length of knee and hip replacement surgeries.
- Significantly shorter durations of orthopedic surgical procedures were recorded in larger and better designed operating rooms.
- Better-designed operating rooms were also associated with less frequent interruptions and fewer movements per case.
- “Saving five to six minutes per 80- to 100-minute operation could save two hours for staff members” and promote better patient care.
Long surgical procedures can lead to delays and cancellations, poor patient experience, and postoperative complications. But can operating room design shorten, make orthopedic surgeries safer and more efficient? This is the question that associate professors at the School of Architecture and Design at the University of Kansas (USA) asked themselves. To answer this question, they conducted a study, the results of which were published in the journal HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal.
Shorter operations in larger, better-designed rooms
To conduct the work, the team observed in real time a series of 70 knee and hip replacement surgeries performed side by side by the same surgical teams in operating rooms of different sizes and layouts at a Midwestern hospital. A computer dataset adapted from recent research was used to measure procedure time, environmental disturbances and staff movement.
When the room was larger and better arranged, i.e. with more free space on both sides of the table, a wider door on the side wall, more cabinets and more free space between the circulatory workstation and the sterile field, the average operating time was significantly shorter. In addition, the number of annoying and time-consuming interactions (disruptions of the surgical flow), e.g. physical collisions between staff and operating room equipment, was reduced.
A time saving of “five to six minutes per 80 to 100 minute operation”
“These results are important because with efficient scheduling of operations, saving five to six minutes per operation from 80 to 100 minutes – which is about what the experiment showed for the larger, better-designed room – could save two hours in total for all staff members working in an operating room per day. In addition, the patient benefits from better infection prevention, shorter waiting times, faster recovery, etc.” concluded Xiaobo Quanlead author of the research.
