Efficiency plan in place for operating theatres

The old-fashioned setting of Tauranga's Historic Village was yesterday at odds with a cutting-edge hospital operating theatre programme launched there by Health Minister Tony Ryall.
Borrowed from the British, The Productive Operating Theatre (TPOT) tweaks the way operating theatres are run to make them more efficient and safer within already scarce resources.
Bay of Plenty District Health Board is one of seven DHBs already committed to the scheme.
"The new programme encourages frontline staff to identify problems with their operating procedures and find ways of solving them," Mr Ryall said.
Theatre staff were often frustrated by delays in starting the day's surgical list and delays in preparing patients, he said.
"These delays often mean less productivity with patients having their operations cancelled."
In the UK, theatre staff had reported fewer cancelled operations, a 25 per cent reduction in start time delays and a 60 per cent faster turn-around between each operation.
Bay of Plenty DHB has been a willing candidate for bold new schemes, having already piloted the efficiency schemes 3D and Releasing Time To Care.
The 3D initiative, trialled over the 12 months to August this year, focused on safer staffing.
It also included an online survey in April this year which, among other alarming results, found that 65 per cent of nurses found the workloads too hard or exhausting, 21 per cent had taken work-related stress leave, 86 per cent worked past the end of their shifts and 43 per cent stated staff frequently became distressed due to high workloads.
Seventy per cent said patient care was compromised either sometimes or often and 27 per cent said patient care was frequently missed or omitted because of time pressure.
But the survey showed a greater level of job satisfaction within the wards where the Releasing Time To Care scheme was in place, DHB director of nursing Julie Robinson said.
The aim of that scheme was to give nurses more say in the way their wards are run, freeing up more time for patients and resulting in better safety and efficiency.
It had given nurses up to 50 per cent more time to spend with patients, reduced patient falls by up to 100 per cent and reduced medication errors by up to 85 per cent.
"The staff in the wards decide on the changes they wish to make, track the results and make further improvements," Ms Robinson said.
"Some of the changes are very practical such as reducing unnecessary stock, having an identified place for all equipment and removing old surplus equipment to have a well-organised ward. This reduces the amount of time spent looking for supplies."
Since its launch, Tauranga Hospital's Children's Ward have reported an improvement in recording patient charts, which had gone from zero being completely correct, to 80 per cent.
"The ward who were first to implement Releasing Time To Care has increased direct patient time from 39 per cent to 57 per cent," Ms Robinson said. "They have improved patient safety by reducing medication errors and patient falls.
"Each ward decides which patient safety indicators they wish to measure, they implement improvements and track the results. One nurse, when asked by Health Minister Tony Ryall what difference the programme had made for her, said 'it has changed my life'."
Another survey is planned to be done in six months.