Modeling and Management of Variation in the Operating Theatre

After having worked in the profit industry, I continued my career in 2004 as a manager of operating rooms (ORs) in a large general teaching hospital in Rotterdam. My experiences in industry management taught me to work efficiently, effectively and to excel in service to every customer and prospect. With this experience in mind I started my new job on the first of January 2004. A job in an environment filled with costly equipment and a range of highly skilled professionals such as surgeons, residents, anesthesiologists and OR staff: a multi-million euro business within a hospital. Last but not least, a business with customers: patients who needed care. Prior to starting the job, I had assumed that processes were already efficient and effective, as a result of the relatively high labor and investment costs. Being a pilot, I fully realize what a valuable resource airspace is, particularly when subject to high traffic demand. Since airspace is a fixed volume, as is the case with OR capacity, managing it is a vital activity for satisfying the needs of the aircraft operators in the most efficient and equitable manner using a sophisticated decision support system. As none of this appeared to be the case in the OR environment, I conjectured that it must be possible to run the OR more efficiently, effectively and in a more patient-centered way.