What To Know
- While 56% of hospitals report that they plan to hire more staff and 52% say they plan to require staff to work more hours to address the backlog, fewer than half (44%) report that they are using advanced digital tools that have been widely shown to improve operating efficiencies and scheduling challenges in surgical settings, with the lowest rate found in acute care settings (27%).
- “The new capabilities now available with Torin are specifically designed to help hospitals and surgery centers address many areas that are major challenges, including accurate assessments of surgery times, scheduling and wait list management, applications of mobile devices and data security requirements based on their specific pre-requisites,“ says Charlotte Enlund, Vice President Integrated Workflow Solutions at Getinge.
The introduction of the Torin Artificial Intelligence (AI) functionality is designed to improve efficiency in managing schedules for surgical procedures and comes in the wake of a new Getinge survey. Among the participating hospitals 41% report significant backlogs and only 44% have implemented new digital tools that can improve proficiency in OR scheduling and patient management.
Getinge, a leading global provider of products and solutions that contribute to quality enhancement and cost efficiency within healthcare and life sciences, now introduces Torin with AI in the United States. The company also announced results from a landmark survey of hospital executives and surgeons in the U.S. showing hospitals are taking steps to speed up OR turnover times, hire new staff and require staff to work longer hours to address backlogs.
“For almost 18 months during the COVID-19 pandemic, both surgeons and patients made decisions to defer many forms of surgery if possible. As more patients feel confident about considering surgery, demand to schedule procedures at all types of hospitals and surgery centers has exploded in recent months,” says Eric Honroth, President, North America at Getinge. “While hospitals can take steps to hire more people and have staff work longer hours to address this backlog, they must also look at the most effective technology options to improve scheduling efficiency and utilization of resources.”
Getinge’s Torin software uses artificial intelligence technology that can quickly and seamlessly improve the speed and efficiency of scheduling surgical procedures. The Torin solution was launched in 2020 as a new resource to help with the planning, management and optimization of surgical procedures. Today’s introduction of a new suite of advanced functions for Torin, significantly expands capabilities in key areas including predicting surgery times, managing wait lists and data security. The system can produce highly accurate assessments of surgical procedure timing based on a range of variables including surgery type, patient data, relevant devices and staffing. To address scheduling backlogs, the software ranks pending procedures based on clinical and resource parameters, proposes optimized pre-schedules and integrates the process with existing scheduling functionalities.
“The new capabilities now available with Torin are specifically designed to help hospitals and surgery centers address many areas that are major challenges, including accurate assessments of surgery times, scheduling and wait list management, applications of mobile devices and data security requirements based on their specific pre-requisites,“ says Charlotte Enlund, Vice President Integrated Workflow Solutions at Getinge. She adds, “For long term acute care facilities, which our study found to be extraordinarily challenged by surgical backlog, we are happy to offer support with Torin OptimalQ, our stand-alone tool, for quick relief in planning and optimizing the waiting list.”
Getinge Post-Pandemic Surgical Backlog Study
In May 2021, Getinge conducted a survey of 60 senior executives and surgeons from U.S. hospitals to assess the extent and impact of surgical backlogs that are developing as a result of the increase in patient demand as the U.S. emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the findings:
- 41% of hospitals report that they are experiencing a surgical backlog, with higher levels of delays reported in long-term acute care (60%) and outpatient surgery (53%) settings.
- While 56% of hospitals report that they plan to hire more staff and 52% say they plan to require staff to work more hours to address the backlog, fewer than half (44%) report that they are using advanced digital tools that have been widely shown to improve operating efficiencies and scheduling challenges in surgical settings, with the lowest rate found in acute care settings (27%).
- Hospitals with the longest scheduling delays were also the least likely to use advanced digital technologies to improve operational efficiencies.
“With thousands of patients facing delays in surgeries because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need to improve scheduling efficiencies has never been more essential,” says Eric Honroth. “Advances in AI technology can play a central role in a comprehensive plan to address these backlogs and can help to improve efficiency and lower costs for hospitals and surgery centers.”