Decrease in case duration required to complete an additional case during regularly scheduled hours in an operating room suite: A computer simulation study

We used Monte-Carlo computer simulation to determine whether surgical or an esthetic interventions to achieve small decreases in case duration may crea te enough new open operating room (OR) time to permit an additional case to be scheduled for completion in an OR suite during regular working hours. W e used rules for scheduling of cases assuming that OR personnel are compens ated so that the OR suite can profit financially from decreasing case durat ion to complete an additional case during regularly scheduled hours. The de creases in each case's duration required to create enough new open OR time to reliably (greater than or equal to 95%) schedule another case were 30-39 min, 79-110 min, and 105-206 min for OR suites with 1-15 ORs and mean case durations of 1, 2, or 3 h, respectively. Implications: Computer simulation shows decreasing case duration is unlikely to create sufficient operating room time to reliably permit an additional case to be scheduled for complet ion during working hours. Additional cases may best be added to the operati ng room suite schedule by optimizing case scheduling, not by decreasing the duration of all cases in the suite.