Effect of a novel financial incentive program on operating room efficiency.

Importance: Operating room (OR) turnaround times (TATs) and on-time first-case starts (FCSs) are commonly used measures of OR efficiency. Prolonged TATs and late FCSs occur frequently at academic medical centers.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that establishing a financial incentive program (FIP) for OR teams would improve efficiency, leading to decreased TATs and improved on-time FCSs.