Operating room

Hospitals, particularly those in multiple hospital systems, have tremendous incentive to move surgeries through operating rooms as quickly as possible.  Adding even one more surgery per OR, per day, for, say, 200 days a year, means millions more in revenue.  But scheduling is more an art than a science.  Surgeons usually underestimate the time needed for an operation.  Knowing this, researchers at the University of Washington analyzed nearly 47,000 patient records with machine learning and found that variations in needed time depended more on the surgeons than on the procedures.  They concluded: “Machine learning approaches may improve case duration estimations, enabling improved OR scheduling, efficiency, and reduced costs.   MORE

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