Abstract
Objective: The research has two goals, the first is to understand the dynamics and the reasons for the delays in a surgical center (SC) of a referral hospital located in the city of São Paulo, and the second is to propose new policies for the process of scheduling of surgical centers, based on Critical Current Theory (CCT).
Method: To achieve the objectives, we used the Case Study method (YIN, 2014) and the Discrete Event Simulation technique. During the case study, was collected process indicators and realized interviews with managers from all areas and services related to the SC.
Theoretical basis: Operating room management is critical in many hospitals, not only because of the high costs involved but also because of its complexity. The challenge of SC managers is to reduce costs and seek improvements in the quality of services provided to patients and surgeons. The management of an SC involves dealing with uncertainties and variability related to the number and duration of surgery in a hospital. The surgery scheduling process is crucial for the success of this management.
Results: The simulation results show that CCT significantly improved the indicators of the studied surgical center. Even maintaining the volume of surgeries per day, there was a drop in the number of surgeries starting with delays, from 94.5% to 58.3%. The average delay dropped from 54 'to 35', a reduction of 35%.
Conclusions and contributions: This work seeks to propose solutions for hospital managers with a potential effect in reducing waste in the operations of the SCs, in improving the quality indicators and in the satisfaction of the actors of the SCs, and, consequently, in increasing the financial gains of the hospital institutions.