A review of 1241 trauma cases: A study of efficiency in trauma theatres

SummaryBackgroundOur trauma department has recently moved to a newly built University hospital. Its geographic situation and the fact that all surgical sub-specialties are represented make it a very busy level 1 trauma centre. Our aim was to assess our activity and efficiency in trauma looking at 1241 consecutive trauma operations over a period of 6 months. Furthermore we evaluate the impact of the move to the new hospital on our activity.MethodA total of 1241 consecutive trauma operations were reviewed, looking at transit times of patients to theatre, the duration of induction of anaesthesia, time to prepare and drape the patients and duration of surgery. Daily starting and finishing times were also analysed. We looked at operations done from April 2006 to July 2006 in our old site and compared the timings to the first 2 months in the new University hospital. In addition, we looked at the most recent 2 months in our new hospital.ResultsThe mean number of cases done daily and the distribution of time in trauma theatre were not significantly different in the 2 hospitals. A mean of 4.9 trauma operations are done per day with a mean of 18.6% of trauma lists starting on time. Furthermore, only around 55% of total theatre time is spent operating. The efficiency of trauma theatre utilisation is far from optimal but seems to correspond with the findings in the general literature.ConclusionActivity and theatre utilisation in trauma should be monitored regularly in order to assess the time distribution of surgical cases. This monitoring enables the department to highlight causes of inefficiencies and has been shown to improve the activity in trauma theatres.