Not an Assembly Line

摘要

As surgeons, we often have several patients scheduled for a variety of surgical interventions or operations on the days we operate. A lot of planning goes on behind the scenes to make operating days go smoothly and for the surgical procedures to be done in a timely fashion. For day-surgery patients, each patient on the schedule is given a specific time to arrive at the facility. The hope is that all patients scheduled for that day get the surgery done with a minimal amount of waiting time. The arrival times for the patients that follow the first patient are based on predictions of time each of the cases posted for that day might take. One important criterion taken into consideration is the estimated time expected to be taken for each case by the surgeon from “cut-to-close.” These estimated times are often based on the surgeon’s average historic times recorded for the type of procedure(s). However, the procedures identified by Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes can differ vastly in complexity. For example, a procedure such as deep hardware removal can be simple and easy in one patient, taking just a few minutes to complete, but in another patient, be a more complex and difficult task that takes over an hour.