A. Dyas1, K. Lovell1, C. Balentine1, T. Wang1, J. Porterfield1, H. Chen1, B. Lindeman1 1University Of Alabama at Birmingham,Department Of Surgery,Birmingham, Alabama, USA
Introduction: Operating room efficiency can often be compromised due to delays in processing surgical instruments. We observed that many instruments included in head and neck trays were not routinely used during thyroid and parathyroid surgery at our institution, which increases costs and decreases efficiency. Our objective was to create a streamlined instrument tray to optimize operative efficiency and cost.
Methods: Head and neck surgical instrument trays were evaluated by operating room team leaders. Instruments within the tray were identified as either necessary or unnecessary based on use during thyroidectomies and parathyroidectomies. The operating room preparation time, tray weights, number of trays, and number of instruments were recorded for both the head and neck tray and the thyroidectomy tray. Cost savings were calculated using Navigant, with estimated reprocessing cost of $0.51 per instrument.
Results: Three of thirteen existing head and neck trays were converted to thyroidectomy/parathyroidectomy trays at no additional hospital cost. Unnecessary instruments were added back to stock for use on other surgical trays. The starting head and neck surgical set was reduced from two trays with 108 total instruments to one tray with 36 instruments. Each operation using the new tray saved $36.72 ($55.08 to $18.36) in reprocessing costs. Projected savings to the hospital with implementation was over $27,000 annually for instrument processing alone. In addition, unmeasured hospital savings include decreased instrument wear and replacement frequency, quicker operating room setup, and decreased decontamination costs. Tray weight decreased from 27 pounds to 10 pounds, and tray preparation time decreased from 8 minutes to 3 minutes.
Conclusion: Optimizing thyroidectomy/parathyroidectomy trays can reduce cost, physical strain, preparation time, decontamination time, and processing times. Streamlining surgical trays is an effective strategy for hospitals to reduce costs and increase operating room efficiency.