Development of a web based monitoring system for safety and activity analysis in operating theatres.

Background: The management and the monitoring of the operating rooms on the part of the general management have the objective of optimizing their use and maximizing the internal safety. The expenses owed to their safe use represent, besides reimbursements coming from the surgical activity, important factors for the analysis of the medical facility.

Objective: Given that it is not possible to reduce the safety, it is necessary to develop supporting systems with the aim to enhance and optimize the use of the rooms.

Methods: The developed analysis model of the operating rooms in this study is based on the specific performance indicators and allows the effective monitoring of both the parameters that influence the safety (environmental, microbiological parameters) and those that influence the efficiency of the usage (employment rate, delays, necessary formalities, etc.). This allows you to have a systematic dashboard on hand for all of the OTs and, thus, organize the intervention schedules and more appropriate improvements.

Results: A monitoring dashboard has been achieved, accessible from any platform and any device, capable of aggregating hospital information. The undertaken organizational modifications, through the use of the dashboard, have allowed for an average annual savings of 29.52 minutes per intervention and increase the use of the ORs of 5%. The increment of the employment rate and the optimization of the operating room have allowed for savings of around $299,88 for every intervention carried out in 2013, corresponding to an annual savings of $343,362,60.

Conclusions: Integration dashboards, as the one proposed in this study as a prototype, represent a governance model of economically sustainable healthcare systems capable of guiding the hospital management in the choices and in the implementation of the most efficient organizational modifications.