Study shows better operating room design reduces operating time by two hours per day

With the constant development that the world of medicine is experiencing, the surgical field is one of those that has benefited the most from latest innovations what has happened in recent years: the ability to operate on more parts of the body, better equipment and training of the surgeons themselves, safer operations…However, you can always go further, and that is why a group of researchers from University of Kansas (KU) conducted the first study to directly link operating room design to operating time. operations knee and hip replacement.

And, as the study reminds us, long-term surgery can cause a whole range of complications in patientsboth during the intervention and in the postoperative period, and ultimately represent a large waste of healthcare resources. Thus, to test this direct relationship between intervention time and operating room design, the authors In total, they observed 70 operations. performed in parallel by the same surgical teams and using the same procedures in two operating rooms of different sizes and layouts in the same hospital in the Midwestern United States.

The study results showed a reduction of five to six minutes in operations that typically take 80 to 100, which could result in two hours less work each day.

Indeed, they found a number of noticeable differences: operating room more and what they thought was better designed had significantly shorter average timeand fewer disruptive interactions (physical confrontations between team members) that delay procedures. Xiaobo Quan was the study’s primary author and notes that while previous studies have analyzed the impact of space design on the frequency of interruptions encountered, they have not controlled for the “enormous impact” that has type of operation And speed with which the surgeon performs this.

The results of the investigation showed reduction from five to six minutes in operations that typically last between 80 and 100 hours, which could result in two hours less work each day. Better infection prevention, less waiting, faster recovery…these are some of the benefits that better designed operating rooms had (more space on both sides of the operating table, a wider door on the side wall, more cabinets…) and which Quan says could be enhanced even more with constant optimization.

Another more in-depth study is being considered to find out how to improve the design of operating rooms.

Likewise, the operating room that was best designed was associated with less frequent breaks and with less movement between team members in each operation. For this reason, a researcher from an American university is planning another more in-depth study to see how improve operating room design and contribute to reducing the duration of the operation and increasing its efficiency.

The study by Xiaobo Quan, an assistant professor in the School of Architecture and Design at the University of Kansas, was published in the journal Health Environments Research & Design. “Naturally, if we have more breaks in the surgical process, the intervention will be longer, but There have been no previous studies analyzing this.. “My study was the first to establish a direct link,” emphasizes the study’s lead author.