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Squeezing the Balloon

Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2003;129:427-428.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

ATTEMPTING TO improve operating room (OR) efficiency can be likened to squeezing a balloon into a small plastic bag: putting pressure on one area will merely shift the air in the balloon to another area. Similarly, attempting to improve OR efficiency may result in unanticipated problems elsewhere in the system. For example, some surgeons may require all patients having surgery that day to arrive at 6:30 AM—which will avoid the problem of waiting for a late patient or one whose surgery will be delayed because of failure to adhere to NPO guidelines—but this solution comes at the expense of a congested preoperative waiting area and some unhappy, hungry patients. In the article by Brenn et al¹ in this issue of the ARCHIVES, they present a retrospective study of efficiency of procedures performed in a short procedure room (SPR) with a circulator only compared with procedures performed in a conventional OR . . . [Full Text of this Article]