Sapana Amin, MBA, Senior Vice President of Operations
Karla Hamilton, MSN, RN, CNML, Performance & Innovation Consultant, Anesthesiology
Darrell Risinger, CRNA, DNP, BSN, Chief CRNA, Anesthesiology
Impact Snapshot
- OR Utilization increased by 7.7%
- Cancellation rate decreased by 16.6%
- Cancellations within 24 hours decreased by 23.5%
- FCOTS increased by 11.8%
The perioperative space is complex, with many moving parts and collaboration across various teams to ensure successful patient flow and excellent patient care. When a Midwestern hospital wanted to improve their perioperative process, they turned to us as their anesthesiology partner to lead an improvement project. TeamHealth’s Performance Innovation Consultant (PIC) team held an on-site event and process improvement project.
Identifying the Problem
The hospital’s leadership engaged the PIC team to explore a few key areas, including pre-admission testing (PAT), first case on-time starts (FCOTS), and operating room (OR) utilization. These areas are vital to successful perioperative operations, ensuring that patients move smoothly through the surgical process and avoiding unnecessary cancellations. With solid foundational processes in place and looking to move from good to great through continuous improvement, they collaborated with the PIC team to identify outstanding issues or barriers.
The PIC team’s on-site event was attended by key stakeholders across departments involved in perioperative care. However, this one facet of the broader effort. The key elements of the project are:
- Conduct interviews with stakeholders across teams
- Perform an on-site assessment of the current processes and flow
- Provide recommendations on best practices
- Create a plan to implement best practice recommendations
- Have follow-up meetings to support implementation
- Deliver ongoing support through operational team collaboration
Building New Processes
Throughout the project, the PIC team spoke with clinicians across departments to ensure that every voice was heard and every angle considered. Recommendations included a mix of short- and long-term items to be executed with the support of the PIC and operations teams. Some of these included reviewing existing data for trends, providing clinical education, developing standardized protocols around specific processes such as EPIC utilization, and creating a PAT department. These recommendations were supplemented with additional data, best practice guidelines, and clinical education modules.
The clinical education proved to be particularly helpful. Everyone from nursing to surgeons and anesthesiology were presented with considerations for change and the reason behind these recommendations. As the transformation evolved, everyone began to see the benefit.
”The biggest reason we had so much success with our project was really the support of the hospital. There’s a lot of really good collaboration between anesthesia and hospital administration and OR management… they’ve always taken everything that TeamHealth has offered, in terms of data and ways to improve, and really accepted it with open arms.
Darrell RisingerChief CRNA
Maintaining Positive Change
The improvements at the hospital were only made possible by the ongoing collaboration among all those involved. The PIC team, clinical teams, and hospital leadership worked closely throughout the improvement process and continue to do so to create lasting change. The hospital continues to gain support and resources from our teams to keep up momentum. Momentum has continued at this partner facility, with notable results across key areas the hospital sought to improve.
Results
- OR utilization increased to an average 68.5% in Q1 and Q2 of 2026, up from a 63.6% average in 2025
- Cancellation rate decreased from an average 8.63% in 2025 to an average 7.2% through August of 2026
- Cancellations within 24 hours decreased from an average 1.70% in 2025 to an average 1.3% through August of 2026
- FCOTS increased from an average 51% in 2025 to an average 57% through August 2026
Optimizing Perioperative Processes
The close collaboration among everyone involved made this project and program enhancements possible. We are proud to build strong partnerships with hospitals that not only provide quality clinical services but also engage in ongoing support, cooperation, and communication to provide exceptional care in life’s pivotal moments for all our patients. To learn more about partnering with us, please reach out to our team.
