[Possibilities in improving patients's turn-over coordination in the OR of an University Hospital].

An efficient Operating Room (OR) management might increase the cost-effectiveness of an OR. For this purpose, we have evaluated the coordination and the times of the solitary processes that are involved in the patient turnover. The mean time between skin suture of the preceding patient and incision of the following patient (SI-time) was, depending on the type of operation, between 44 and 78 minutes. Mean empty-room time (ERT) was 7 minutes. SI-times depended on various factors, including the times necessary to discharge the preceding patient from the OR and the times necessary for induction of anesthesia or for preparation of the OR. Altogether, our data provide evidence for the fact, that optimisation of the patients turnover can decrease SI-times between 10-15 minutes. Although this period appears too short to reliably allow an additional scheduled operation during regular working hours, an improved coordination may result in reduced overtimes of the OR-staff and thus should increase staff satisfaction.