Examining policies for managing operating room capacity

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Evaluating factors associated with the cancellation and delay of elective surgical procedures: a systematic review

Background Elective surgery cancellation is considered a fundamental problem in health care services—it causes considerable disruption to patient flow, further eroding often already stretched operating capacity, and consequentially reduces both hospital performance and patient satisfaction. This research presents a systematic review (SR) of the reasons for surgery cancellation among different hospitals and countries. By highlighting these causes, we identify how to reduce cancellations, thereby improving the use of surgical capacity and resources and creating a more predicable patient flow. Methods An SR was performed on elective surgery cancellation in compliance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis and by assessing the methodological quality of SR with Measurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews guidelines. Results There are different reasons for surgery cancellation that vary between hospitals. This SR demonstrates that hospital-related causes (e.g. unavailable operation room time, inappropriate scheduling policy and lack of beds) are the primary reason for surgery cancellation, followed by work-up related causes (e.g. medically unfit and changes in the treatment plan) and patient-related causes (e.g. absence of a patient and patient refusal). Conclusion This review demonstrates that the main causes for surgery cancellation can be controlled by hospital managers, who can aim to improve areas such as patient flow and capacity management. Ultimately, this will improve the quality of healthcare delivered by hospitals.</p

Bibliometric analysis of production planning and control (1990–2016)

<p>Production Planning and Control (PPC) has been one of the primary publishing outlets for operations management research for nearly three decades. This paper presents bibliometric analysis of the journal from its inception through 2016. PPC was analysed from six different perspectives to provide reliable and in-depth information about the journal’s performance and development. The analysis considered the development of the journal itself, the countries of contributing authors, authors’ academic and practitioner organisation affiliations, the top publishing and most cited authors, the most cited articles, and finally the topics of published papers through analysis of titles, keywords and abstracts. It was found that the journal is considered an outlet for both practice and academic research, reflecting changes over time in the landscape of operations management.</p