Preop Report

PreO The Paul Merage School of Business at UC Irvine |

UCI Medical Center: Reducing Delay in the Preoperative Holding Unit |

Operations Management |

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Group 1: Talal Alnafie, John Converse, Jenners Foe-Parker, JongHo Lee, and Nupur Jain |

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6/2/2010

Background:

University of California Irvine Medical Center Operating Rooms

Established in 1976, UC Irvine Medical Center (UCIMC) is the only Level 1 Trauma Center in Orange County, California. As a university hospital, UCIMC is an academic teaching institution where 560 faculty physicians from 26 departments teach and train over 720 resident physicians and medical students. UC Irvine Douglas Hospital, completed in 2009, possesses 15 state-of-the-art operating rooms (OR’s). Approximately 30 operations are conducted on a daily basis, advance scheduled by the faculty surgeon physician. On average, 11 OR’s are in use simultaneously. The first surgeries of the day are scheduled for 7:15 AM. Each individual OR is scheduled according to the estimated time required to conduct each procedure. For example, OR 1 may be scheduled for a 7:15 AM inguinal hernia repair, then a 9:30 AM thyroid mass removal, then a 2:00 PM hip replacement. Each operating room is multifunctional and is utilized by a wide range of surgical specialties including: general surgery, orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery, urology, plastic surgery, trauma surgery, gynecology, otolaryngology, ophthalmology and pulmonology.

The Preoperative Holding Unit

Prior to being transferred to the operating room, patients are staged in the Preoperative Holding Unit (PHU). In the PHU, patients are prepared for surgery by their anesthesiology team, surgery team, nurse circulator and auxiliary nursing staff.

The PHU consists of a long hallway with 15 bays adjacent to the PHU nursing station. In order to adhere to the daily OR schedule, significant emphasis is placed upon the PHU’s ability to correctly prepare the pre-operative candidate for...