Purpose of the Program
Turnover time is defined as the time taken by perioperative nurses to prepare a patient and operating room (OR) for surgery after the successful wheeling of the first patient out of the OR. The typical activities following surgery include the surgeon closing the case, anesthetic completion, circulating nurse finishing documentation, and patient leaving the OR. Reducing turnover time is an essential element to the success of an organization in safer and more surgeries (Rothstein and Raval, 2018). The reduction can be achieved through an automated medical record system. The electronic medical records are a game-changer as the circulatory nurses have all the necessary information in an OR; thus, it can best guarantee the safety of the patients by pointing out an anomaly in the patient by referring to prior procedures already in the system. The automation can also be in the form of an electronic inventory system where the supplies needed for surgery are readily acquired, thus significantly reduce the time needed for the circulatory nurses to prep the OR. The purpose of this initiative is to reduce the turn over time between consecutive surgeries in the OR.
Target Audience
The target audience in the automation of the systems is the patients, circulatory nurses, and hospital staff in charge of inventory. The circulatory nurses are charged with the preparation of the OR before and after surgery. With the medical records’ automation, the circulatory nurse can send the list of the required equipment to the inventory teams electronically to prepare the tools immediately after the completion of surgery. This is made possible by the preexisting electronic lists that detail the requirements for a specific operation. The automation of medical records targets the patient’s safety as all the preexisting conditions and procedures necessary are outlined; thus, the circulatory nurse has a better apprehension of the task and sufficiently advocates for the patient’s needs. The inventory system is up to date; hence any missing requirement is detected early and restocked to ensure seamless coordination between surgeries.
Benefits of the Initiative
There is improved documentation, which significantly increases the delivery of quality care. The automation of the medical records leads to the individualization of the patient’s needs in terms of information collected. The documentation of the patient’s records over time leads to better overall health information; thus, the circulating nurses can notice changes in the patient’s needs while under the influence of anesthesia.
The use of electronic medical records leads to reduced medical errors while in the OR (Kumah-Crystal, Pirtle, Whyte, Goode, Anders and Lehmann, 2018). The circulatory nurses have all the information regarding the patient, such as allergies and lethal medical interaction, thus make quick, informed decisions regarding patient safety. Seamless coordination with inventory staff leads to reduced turnover time, which translates to more surgeries during work shifts. An automated inventory system ensures appropriate supplies are ready to be wheeled into the OR as it is fed prior information regarding the type of surgery. This automation will significantly reduce the time the circulatory nurses are engaged with the supply teams, maximizing the time to sterilize the OR. This, in turn, will be instrumental in reducing the turnover time; thus, the organization will be in a better position to perform more surgeries while conforming to the standardized procedures.
Interprofessional Coordination
The coordinating teams required for the implementation of the initiative include all healthcare personnel in the hospital. The patient’s medical records are updated from admission to discharge of the patient; thus, the integration of information between departments is paramount. The electronic medical records for patients are initiated by admitting nurses, through to the physicians and clinicians, and later to circulating nurses. Each department continuously revises the records intending to furnish the OR team with accurate details. The inventory team collaborates with the OR team in terms of equipment discharge from the procurement department. The automated system checklists the available resources against the required items and their alternatives in case of an emergency, thus providing the OR team with appropriate tools immediately.
Cost of the Initiative
The project’s budget allocation is for the implementation of a specialized program that will integrate the medical records into a single system. All health records are to be personalized from the patient admission; hence with the already present computerized system, the cost of the project is relatively low as only the integrated program is required. The inventory is linked with the circulatory nurse’s procedures and requirements regularly updated for easy accessibility of equipment (Lee, Ding and Guzzo, 2019). The cost of such a program that integrates departmental records into a single reliable output is significantly less than the cost associated with increased turnover time over a specified period.
Evaluation of the Project
The basis of the evaluation of the project will include; patient safety, patient satisfaction, punctuality of the surgeries, and instrument preparation (Pedron, Winter, Oppel and Bialas, 2017). The automation of the medical systems will significantly contribute to the reduction of turnover time and an increase in patient safety coordinated by the circulating nurses. The success of the project will also be viewed from the perceptive of punctuality of start times of surgeries as the instruments are prepared faster with the aid of the checklists provided by the nurses to the inventory teams. The patient advocacy by circulating nurses will be better placed to make informed decisions based on the patient’s updated records in case of an emergency where the patient is incapacitated.
