The Admissions Lounge (AL) was introduced with the aims of reducing the number of late starts, improving the patient experience and reducing preoperative length of stay to save bed days. To determine whether a reduction in number of late starts was achieved, 237 start times from pre and post introduction of the AL were collected and analysed. There was no statistically significant difference (p>0.05) between the percentage of lists delayed or the mean delay between pre and post introduction of the AL (mean delay for post AL was 10.17 minutes compared to 9.85 minutes pre AL). The AL had no impact on theatre start times, neither improving nor reducing the operating theatre efficiency in this respect.
KoenigT, NeumannC, OckerT2011Estimating the time needed for induction of anaesthesia and its importance in balancing anaesthetists' and surgeons' waiting times around the start of surgeryAnaesthesia66(7) 556–62
4.
MacarioA2006Are your hospital operating rooms ‘efficient’? A scoring system with eight performance indicatorsAnesthesiology105(2) 237–40
5.
PanditJJ, WestburyS, PanditM2007The concept of surgical operating list ‘efficiency’: a formula to describe the termAnaesthesia62(9) 895–903
6.
PanditJJ, AbbottT, PanditM2012Is ‘starting on time’ useful (or useless) as a surrogate measure for ‘surgical theatre efficiency’?Anaesthesia67(8) 823–32
7.
WachtelRE, DexterF2009Influence of the operating room schedule on tardiness from scheduled start timesAnesthesia & Analgesia108(6) 1889–901
