Preoperative cross functional teams improve OR performance. Issue 3 (18th May 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bitter, Justin; van Veen-Berkx, Elizabeth; van Amelsvoort, Pierre; Gooszen, Hein
• Is Part Of: Journal of health organisation and management. Volume 29:Issue 3(2015)
• Page Start: 343
• Page End: 352
• Publication Date: 2015-05-18
• Subjects: Health services administration -- Periodicals; Health services administration -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; Health services administration -- Europe -- Periodicals; 362.106805
• DOI: 10.1108/JHOM-07-2013-0145
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1477-7266

Abstract

<abstract> <title> <x content-type="archive" xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <sec> <title content-type="abstract-heading">Purpose</title> <p> – The purpose of this paper is to present the effect of the introduction of cross-functional team (CFT)-based organization, rather than, on planning and performance of OR teams. </p> </sec> <sec> <title content-type="abstract-heading">Design/methodology/approach</title> <p> – In total, two surgical departments of the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center (RUNMC) in the Netherlands were selected to illustrate the effect on performance. Data were available for a total of seven consecutive years from 2005 until 2012 and consisted of 4, 046 OR days for surgical Department A and 1, 154 OR days for surgical Department B on which, respectively 8, 419 and 5, 295 surgical cases were performed. The performance indicator "raw utilization" of the two surgical Departments was presented as box-and-whisker plots per year (2005-2011). The relationship between raw utilization (<italic>y</italic>) and years (<italic>x</italic>) was analyzed with linear regression analysis, to observe if performance changed over time. </p> </sec> <sec> <title content-type="abstract-heading">Findings</title> <p> – Based on the linear regression analysis, raw utilization of surgical Department A showed a statistically significant increase since 2006. The variation in raw utilization reduced from IQR 33 percent in 2005 to IQR 8 percent in 2011. Surgical Department B showed that raw utilization increased since 2005. The variation in raw utilization reduced from IQR 21 percent in 2005 to IQR 8 percent in 2011. </p> </sec> <sec> <title content-type="abstract-heading">Social implications</title> <p> – Hospitals need to improve their productivity and efficiency in response to higher societal demands and rapidly escalating costs. The RUNMC increased their OR performance significantly by introduction of CFT-based organization in the operative process and abandoning the so called functional silos. </p> </sec> <sec> <title content-type="abstract-heading">Originality/value</title> <p> – The stepwise reduction of variation – a decrease of IQR during the years – indicates an organizational learning effect. This study demonstrates that introducing CFTs improve OR performance by working together as a team.</p> </sec> </abstract>