• Elizabeth van Veen-Berkx, Sylvia G Elkhuizen, Cor J Kalkman, Wolfgang F Buhre, and Geert Kazemier.
• PhD Fellow Dutch OR Benchmarking Collaboration, Department of Operating Rooms, Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam, Room number: Hs-324, 's-Gravendijkwal 230, 3015 CE Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Electronic address: lizetteberkx@gmail.com.
• Am. J. Surg. 2014 Jun 1; 207 (6): 949-59.

BackgroundFirst-case tardiness is still a common source of frustration. In this study, a nationwide operating room (OR) Benchmark database was used to assess the effectiveness of interventions implemented to reduce tardiness and calculate its economic impact.MethodsData from 8 University Medical Centers over 7 years were included: 190,295 elective inpatient first cases. Data were analyzed with SPSS statistics and multidisciplinary focus-group study meetings. Analysis of variance with contrast analysis measured the influence of interventions.ResultsSeven thousand ninety-four hours were lost annually to first-case tardiness, which has a considerable economic impact. Four University Medical Centers implemented interventions and effectuated a significant reduction in tardiness, eg providing feedbacks directly when ORs started too late, new agreements between OR and intensive care unit departments concerning "intensive care unit bed release" policy, and a shift in responsibilities regarding transport of patients to the OR.ConclusionsNationwide benchmarking can be applied to identify and measure the effectiveness of interventions to reduce first-case tardiness in a university hospital OR environment. The implemented interventions in 4 centers were successful in significantly reducing first-case tardiness.Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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