Improving hospital efficiency: assessment of a Surgical Suite through a Root Cause Analysis [Poster display]

Issue: An inefficient healthcare management could lead to wastes in terms of money and time and reduce the quality of care. The organizational assessment allows to identify weaknesses and inadequacies and promote an operative strategy to increase efficiency. Description of the problem The aim of the project was to identify issues related to organization, materials, personnel and methodology to promote an operative strategy to make the unit more efficient. The study was conducted in a SS of Northern Italy through process mapping of the working context, qualitative and quantitative analysis of healthcare documents and evaluation of the critical issues through the Root Cause Analysis (RCA) tool. The Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) method was used to enable the changes. Results: The main issues leading to an overall inefficiency were the presence of not sufficiently updated medical devices and an underuse of the radiological software Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS). The root causes were identified and represented in the Ishikawa diagram by classifying them into four areas: (1) organization, (2) personnel, (3) materials and (4) methods. Critical issues in planning processes, heterogeneity of skills and educational background, presence of several computerized information systems and lack of a connection interface between the different software, lack of internal procedures and paths and a not sufficient professional retraining were identified. To overcome these criticalities, two multidisciplinary and multiprofessional working tables, which are still ongoing, were launched by the hospital management, in order to identify an improvement strategy according to the PDCA model. Lessons: The analysis allowed to define the root causes of the SS inefficiency and its reorganization was led to promote continuous improvement. The innovative aspect of the study was the use of the RCA to perform an organizational assessment in healthcare, rather than a reactive risk management tool. Key messages: Hospital efficiency can be pursued by applying a scientifically context-oriented analysis to solve problems. RCA can be applied as a useful tool for organizational assessment in healthcare.