Abstract
The recent medical system reform has prompted a demand for efficient management of operating rooms. This has necessitated the analysis of the requests made by personnel from each surgical department, i. e., the users.
First, duration of hospitalization should be analyzed (to determine whether or not surgeries have been put off needlessly after patient admission) . Monthly variations in the number of waiting patients, along with the number of days before admission, should also be analyzed on a department-by-department basis. Then, the surgery quotas of each department should be evaluated to optimize their allocation. The time and type of emergency, night-time and holiday surgeries, which put huge burdens on surgical personnel, should be analyzed.
Based on the information obtained from the analyses, it will be required for anesthesiologists not only to conduct anesthetic operations but also to get actively involved in expansive tasks such as the following: optimization of scheduling (a task originally intended for surgical personnel) ; appropriate allocation of staff members ; manpower planning ; work-sharing with pharmacists, clinical engineers, and assistants ; prediction of the number of future operations ; and planning the increase in the number of operating rooms.
Such broader perspectives will surely enable efficient management of operating rooms.
