Faced with today’s unrelenting financial demands and quality of care challenges, leading hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers are turning to comparative healthcare benchmarks to help them improve operating room (OR) performance. Six of these trailblazers have been recognized by one such service, the OR Benchmarks® Collaborative (ORBC), as 2009 Top Performers that have used ORBC data to achieve significant results. The ORBC is a partnership between McKesson and OR Manager, Inc. with member organizations in the United States and Canada. It provides a Web-based subscription service designed to help healthcare organizations monitor, assess and improve performance in the operating room.
Saint Barnabas Medical Center was named the Best Overall Performer among academic hospitals in the United States. The Livingston, N.J.-based hospital achieved the highest composite score on 15 metrics that assess performance in five key areas: start time accuracy, case time effectiveness, turnover, scheduling accuracy, and utilization.
“I find this recognition extremely credible since it is based on performance improvement that’s validated through extensive statistical analysis,” said Ylone Xavier, vice president of performance improvement at Saint Barnabas. “It truly rewards us for the improvements that we have made.” By leveraging the data available in ORBC, Saint Barnabas improved OR on-time starts from 52 percent to 68.5 percent in just one month.
To ensure an unbiased quality analysis, McKesson engaged an outside research organization specializing in clinical data management to complete the award analysis by applying a rigorous statistical process. Other organizations recognized as 2009 Top Performers are:
Best Overall Performer, Ambulatory Surgical Center
- Gaston Memorial Hospital Outpatient Surgery, Gastonia, NC – United States
- Mt. Sinai Hospital, Toronto – Canada
Best Overall Performer, Academic Hospital
- Kingston General Hospital, Kingston, Ontario – Canada
Best Overall Performer, Non-Academic Hospital