Xiaobo Quan is proud that his study is the first of its kind to link operating room design to the duration of knee and hip replacement surgeries.
That’s why the associate professor at the University of Kansas’ School of Architecture and Design believes his findings can be used to optimize spaces that produce better outcomes (through shorter surgeries) for patients and improve hospital outcomes.
For the article just published in the magazine Research and design of healthcare environmentsQuan observed in real time a series of 70 knee and hip replacement surgeries performed in parallel by the same surgical teams in operating rooms of different sizes and designs at a Midwestern hospital. The larger, better-designed of the two operating rooms had significantly shorter average operating times and fewer time-consuming, problematic interactions (“interruptions in surgical flow”) — for example, physical collisions between staff and operating room equipment, Quan found.
“Previous studies looked at the impact of space design on the frequency of interruptions encountered, but they did not control for the huge influence of the type of surgery and the speed of the individual surgeon,” the KU researcher said. “I think the beauty of my study is that I controlled for these two major factors.”
Quan said no previous study had shown that environmental design could shorten the length of a surgical procedure. “The breakthrough in my study is that it is the first to link the built environment of operating rooms to the length of surgery,” he said. “Naturally, if we experience more interruptions in our surgical process, we will have a longer surgery. But there are no previous research studies looking at that. My study was the first to make the connection directly.”
This is important, Quan said, because with efficient scheduling of surgeries, shaving five to six minutes off of each 80- to 100-minute surgery (which is roughly what the quasi-experiment showed for the best-designed room) could add up to two hours of savings in total staff time for all staff members working in an OR per day. The savings are significant for healthcare organizations facing high labor costs. Not to mention, it’s better for the patient in terms of better infection prevention, less waiting, faster recovery, etc.
The benefits could be even greater with continued optimisation. Quan is planning research to see how operating theatre design can be further improved to further contribute to surgery efficiency and reduce surgery duration.