A CFO's Blueprint for Increasing OR Revenue, Capacity, and Utilization

Maximizing OR utilization is among the most pressing issues facing hospital CFOs and perioperative leaders today. It's easy to understand why: maximizing OR utilization also maximizes both patients' access to care and the resulting hospital revenue. The fact that the OR represents both the highest-cost asset to a hospital and the highest opportunity for revenue generation significantly increases the urgency to improve OR utilization. These factors, combined with the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, make it critical that healthcare institutions seek innovative technological solutions to optimize OR operations.

One of the most promising areas is the application of Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in OR scheduling and capacity management. These technologies offer a robust framework for analyzing large amounts of operational data, enabling more precise predictions and decisions about OR utilization.

Adoption of various AI-based technologies can significantly enhance block schedule optimization. These technologies can identify inefficiencies and suggest improvements by analyzing past and current scheduling patterns. This capability is crucial for increasing the number of surgical cases handled without compromising patient care quality.

AI-powered predictive analytics play a pivotal role in forecasting and managing OR demand. Hospital staff can anticipate slow or busy periods, schedule surgeries more effectively, and allocate resources where needed most. Predictive analytics can also improve surgery duration estimation, helping in the efficient allocation of block times.

The financial impact of these technologies is realized immediately. By optimizing the allocation of OR block time and its daily use, hospitals can increase contribution margin through both increased volume and selectivity in the allocation of recaptured time while at the same time better supporting its strategic imperatives.

For CFOs and perioperative leaders, integrating these advanced technologies into their operational strategy is becoming essential. Not only do they offer a way to enhance financial performance, but they also improve patient access to care and staff satisfaction by reducing wait times and improving the overall flow.

When searching for a technology to optimize perioperative block utilization, hospital CFOs should consider the following factors:

1. Integration with Existing Systems: New technology needs to seamlessly integrate with the hospital's existing Electronic Health Records (EHR) and other operational systems to ensure smooth data flow and avoid the need for manual data entry, reducing the risk of errors and increasing efficiency. Make sure any OR utilization technology you evaluate can support an appropriate level of integration, including simple report-based integration, APIs, and HL7.
2. Data-Driven Insights: The technology should provide robust data analytics capabilities. However, how it provides these analytics and the effort required to use them should be strongly evaluated. Those technologies that can harness the power of ML and AI to quickly and easily access and take action on your proprietary data, including historical utilization patterns, predicting future demands, and identifying underutilized blocks, should be prioritized.
3. User-Friendly Workflows: The ease of use for all stakeholders, including surgeons, nurses, and administrative staff, is essential. The key criteria should be whether the technology and the team behind it are structured to encourage rapid adoption and rapid time-to-value.
4. Support and Training: As your organizational needs evolve, ongoing training and support from the technology provider are key to successful implementation and long-term usage. Ask the provider how they guide your success with comprehensive staff training and provide ongoing support to address any technical issues or updates.
5. Demonstrable ROI: It seems that any technology offering today claims a positive ROI. However, you must understand how that ROI is realized and over what time period to determine whether the results are replicable in your organization. Is it a soft ROI predicated on certain efficiencies that may or may not be realized, or a hard ROI that can be clearly delineated through directly associated incremental cases?