c-section OR time study

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Dec 20, 2005

Honestly, we never have, but we ought to. They can go anywhere from an hour to 3 hours.

And the turnover time, no joke, has been 1 1/2 hours- 2 hours if it's L and D staffing, 30 minutes max if it's OR staffing.

BELCJ · Dec 20, 2005

I know you said no joking, but come on. 2 hrs versus 30 minutes? Sounds to me like either the L&D staff are taking their time so they don't have to go back to the floor, or some serious inservicing needs to be done.

You do however present a valid point, that we may be encountering, in that OR staff can clean and stock the OR suite in an average of 20 minutes. They schedule 30 minutes between cases, but rarely need that much time. Our c-sections are actually done in OR suites located in the OB department. I have someone telling me they need an hour to clean and restock.

I guess I'm going to have to go watch to see what is taking so long.:)

Jolie, BSN · Dec 20, 2005

I know you said no joking, but come on. 2 hrs versus 30 minutes? Sounds to me like either the L&D staff are taking their time so they don't have to go back to the floor, or some serious inservicing needs to be done.
You do however present a valid point, that we may be encountering, in that OR staff can clean and stock the OR suite in an average of 20 minutes. They schedule 30 minutes between cases, but rarely need that much time. Our c-sections are actually done in OR suites located in the OB department. I have someone telling me they need an hour to clean and restock.
I guess I'm going to have to go watch to see what is taking so long.:)

I don't doubt that the turnaround time is much longer with L&D staff than OR staff because the RNs staffing the OR for the section are the SAME RNs who then must recover mom and baby, and care for other L&D or LDRP patients as well. They don't have the luxury of "handing over" their patients PACU staff in order to dedicate themselves to turning the room around. It is somewhat akin to staffing the OR with the same nurses who will receive the post-op patients on the med-surg floor.

BELCJ · Dec 20, 2005

We don't use nurses for cleanup and restocking. We use the techs. Whether in OB or OR, the tech's job is with the patient is done once the procedure is done.

They're not saying it will be an hour before they get the job done, they are telling me it takes an hour to do the actual job of cleaning and restocking. That is why I am concerned. I don't understand why it would take 3 times as long for the same job.

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Dec 20, 2005

I know you said no joking, but come on. 2 hrs versus 30 minutes? Sounds to me like either the L&D staff are taking their time so they don't have to go back to the floor, or some serious inservicing needs to be done.
You do however present a valid point, that we may be encountering, in that OR staff can clean and stock the OR suite in an average of 20 minutes. They schedule 30 minutes between cases, but rarely need that much time. Our c-sections are actually done in OR suites located in the OB department. I have someone telling me they need an hour to clean and restock.
I guess I'm going to have to go watch to see what is taking so long.:)

I think a couple of secrets to our OR having the quicker turnover is 1) we have a bust-orifice team of 2 housekeepers that clean the suites in less than 5 minutes 2)we'll pitch in to get it done if necessary and 3)we're use to having to turn around quickly, and naturally do this in L and D out of habit.

The L and D staff are slower, but we don't know the reason why. Typically, the ones that are in the C-section rooms are not assigned anywhere else that day, when they're not in a c-section, they're floating on the floor to help out the others. They are also not the same team that recovers the pts., someone else is assigned to do that.