Individualized surgical items and customized surgical packs in operating room management

Abstract

Background: in the operation room (OR), ideal efficiency is achieved by the professional’s ability to offer high quality healthcare and simultaneously find new and creative ideas to lower costs and improve productivity. Using Customized Surgical Packs (CSP) instead of Individualized Surgical Items (ISI) could be a way to work more efficiently. Objective: to evaluate the costs and time spent while using ISI and compare them with CSP in trochanteric fracture surgery. Methodology: qualitative study, done in OR, between november 2017 and april 2018, through participative observation and cost documentary analysis. Data analysis was performed with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), version 25. Results: costs associated with ISI, per surgery, are in average 42,20€ while using CSP has an average cost of 33,33€. Setting up the operating table with the use of ICI takes an average time of 6 minutes and 4 seconds, whereas using CSP takes that value down 49 seconds. Conclusion: OR efficiency and financial sustainability are guaranteed when comparing the use of CSP instead of ISI, contributing for less wasting by optimizing the available resources.