[Effects of overlapping induction on the utilization of complex operating structures: estimation using the practical application of a simulation model].

Reduction of costs or increase in efficiency may lead to optimization of cost-effectiveness in operating rooms. Overlapping induction by additional anesthesia teams reduces the changeover time between surgical interventions and, therefore, increases utilization effectiveness of surgical theatres. From an economic point of view overlapping induction should be performed where the highest increase in efficacy and revenues is possible. This article presents a software tool to vary the number of anesthesia teams in different single or clustered operating rooms. Using the example of a university hospital it could be demonstrated that the simulated addition of one anesthesia team to different clusters of operations rooms resulted in an increase of 15-40 % of operations and an increase up to 81 % of utilization effectiveness. Therefore, the presented simulation tool may help to estimate the maximum effect of staff allocation in surgical theatres.