Increase in Robot Assisted Operating Room Efficiency: A Quality Improvement Study

Introduction Pyeloplasties are time-sensitive, and the most common robot assisted intervention performed in pediatric urology. Early intervention is intended to avoid permanent loss of renal function with negative long-term effects if surgery is delayed when indicated. A need to increase capacity has become a premium value in patient care. Objective Our aim was to reduce operative time, providing value by reducing total robotic console time in robot assisted pyeloplasty (RP) cases. We hypothesized that process improvement and supply management during RP leads to a significant reduction in operative time. Methods Intraoperative surgical workflow was reviewed and routine tasks performed during the various sections were selected with the goal of reducing Operating room inactivity. We focused on robotic arm activity, and total operative time to assess our outcomes. Our intervention was to standardize an OR staff task list, a priori supply inventory procurement for each anticipated major step in the case, confirmed prior to each major step. Baseline RP duration data for a single Pediatric Urologist were identified and recorded before any interventions. A clinical standard work (CSW) was developed based on optimization of equipment/supplies for the RP procedure, compartmentalized into the 8 key steps for RP. These major steps included: patient positioning, docking, retroperitoneal and ureteral dissection, hitch stitch, pyelotomy, stent placement, and anastomosis. Balancing measures included percentage trainee console use, preparatory time, and OR block start/end time. Baseline data for RP cases performed between 11/2020 and 2/2022 were automatically extracted from charts and analyzed using AdaptX (Seattle, WA). Post-intervention was between 3/2022 to 3/2023. Mann-WhitneyU was used for continuous variables for non-parametric distribution. Results 37 patients underwent RP during the study period. 15 cases were performed prior to intervention and 22 post intervention Total console time prior to intervention was 152 vs 109 mins after intervention (p=0.0002). Dual instrument inactivity was reduced from 13.1% to 7.1% (p<0.0001). Dual consoles were used in 40% vs ∼69% pre-vs post-intervention, respectively (p=0.5000). No difference in patient age distribution between groups was seen (p=0.1498). Trainee operative time did not differ statistically pre- and post-intervention (63.0 vs 48.6%, p=0.0871). Conclusions Decreasing surgical lapses and standardizing intraoperative tasks can result in more efficient case completion, potentially increasing OR capacity.