OR dream team: a continuous quality improvement project

Decreasing preoperative delays--a rapid process improvement project

Patient delays in the preoperative area are frustrating to patients, staff members, and physicians. These delays result in indirect costs that waste resources and decrease revenue. The purpose of this project was to determine whether implementation of rapid process improvement methodology would decrease preoperative patient delays. A delay was defined as any time a patient is not ready 30 minutes before his or her scheduled surgery time. A 7% reduction in delays occurred as a result of the project. Although the change was not statistically significant, it was clinically significant.