Surgeon Responsibilities

The surgeon is responsible for the preoperative diagnosis of the patient, for performing the operation, and for providing the patient with postoperative care and treatment. The surgeon is looked upon as the leader of the surgical team. Medical errors in the OR can result in diminished patient outcomes;  therefore, an ill-prepared OR suite is extremely frustrating. Doing the same case, day after day, and still not having the right instruments at the right time becomes a source of distraction, diminishing the capacity of the surgeon to concentrate on the task at hand.

How DocOpC Helps

Before surgery, DocOpC Scheduling notifies and confirms that all necessary implants, representatives and assistants are available for the procedure, while helping to coordinate the preoperative clearance process, thus diminishing case cancellations. At the time of surgery, DocOpC, provides the detailed instructions necessary to completely prepare the room and patient for surgery. Surgeons can access, review and even share their preference cards. Cost is transparent and the user interface allows for easy substitution to less expensive items.

Circulating Nurse (Circulator) Responsibilities

Inside the operating room, the patient is powerless; therefore, the circulating nurse must be the advocate while the patient is under the influence of anesthesia. Perioperative nursing is an essential member of the surgery team. They render expert pre-, intra- and post-operative nursing care. This expert is responsible for coordinating the various surgical team members in a unified effort and charting what is happening in the operating room while tracking the supplies and equipment used for billing purposes.

How DocOpC Helps

DocOpC navigates the multitude of individual surgeon and case preferences, enhancing patient care and total room preparation. Charting charges is streamlined and take only minutes while also providing a mechanism for updating preference cards directly from the OR.

Surgical Technologist (Scrub Tech) Responsibilities 

This vital member of the healthcare team anticipates the next move the surgeon is going to make in order to make the procedure as smooth and efficient as possible. This requires knowledge of hundreds of surgical procedures and the steps the surgeon needs to complete, including a wide range of instruments they may need. 

How DocOpC Helps

DocOpC facilitates electronic picking with items in the proper order of the storeroom. In addition, double work is eliminated through the precise indication of only those items missing for the case. DocOpC prepares the surgical tech to setup up a surgical case regardless of complexity using surgeon-specific, granular case details. Techs can even review photos, for example, of surgeon preferred mayo stand and instrument table setups.  They have the ability to place the surgical steps in exact order and understand exactly which instruments will be utilized out of the instrument set. Scrub techs can study case details prior to the start of a case.

Administrator Responsibilities 

This group may include the C-suite, operating room directors and managers, and materials management. The operating room accounts for 50% of the revenue and 30 to 40% of the supply cost; however, the surgery suite is often largely inaccessible to this group.

How DocOpC Helps

DocOpC provides real-time insights coupled with data analysis that begins with scheduling and goes beyond the operating room. Surgeons can be notified of available OR time to maximize the “white space” utilization in order to drive capacity. Crowd sourced best practices can be applied to a single facility or across facilities. Operating room directors can closely manage the surgical white board schedule, keep up-to-date preference cards, and use technology for case training and performance improvement. Materials management can respond to forward-looking inventory needs. The C-Suite can have customized summary and drill-down reporting for any aspect of the surgical process from block time utilization, OR capacity reporting, and procedural cost and efficiency across surgeons.

Anesthesia Responsibilities 

Anesthesia plays a crucial role in the success of surgical procedures. Anesthesiologists are dedicated to the relief of pain and total care of the surgical patient before, during, and after surgery. They work with the surgeon to develop a plan of care designed to maximize patient safety and pain control. Certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs) work with the anesthesiologists and the surgical team closely and have responsibilities including administering anesthesia and other pre- and intra-operative medications, performing spinal and nerve blocks, and monitoring the airway and vital signs. 

How DocOpC Helps

DocOpC gives the anesthesia team the case-specific surgeon preferences to understand nerve block and other anesthetic requirements for a particular procedure and even for a particular patient. It also helps coordinate the tricky business of preoperative clearance and provides anesthesia and CRNAs a mechanism to understand the surgeon’s preferences regarding type of anesthesia, timing of medication administration and even positioning requirements.

Sterile Processing Technician Responsibilities 

Sterile processing technicians may have a behind-the-scenes role in the medical community, but they are also a crucial part of eliminating infections and maintaining supplies in hospitals and surgical suites. These professionals manually clean tools, monitor their cleaning in autoclaves, and examine them for flaws and irregularities. Techs may also be responsible for assembling surgical instrument trays, ordering supplies, and more

How DocOpC Helps

DocOpC will manage and help optimize instrument sets for maximum efficiency and preparedness.

Scheduling

DocOpC manages scheduling, aligning clinics with operating rooms and notifying all requisite personnel.

How DocOpC Helps

Operating rooms account for approximately 50% of the revenue for a facility and between 30-40% of the supply cost. Unified scheduling bypasses the duplicate data entry performed between staff at clinics and surgical facilities. This virtually eliminates emails and faxes between them, minimizing the number of phone calls. Key participants such as second- surgeons, equipment vendors and representatives, first assistants are notified of any changes such as surgery date or time. Live white-board functionality for room assignments and times is provided, and an abbreviated, customizable version is available for display in the waiting rooms.

Pick Sheets

DocOpC manages scheduling, supplies and revenue for the operating room.

How DocOpC Helps

The ingredients for a surgical case are kept up-to-date, and per case missing items (needs) are reported to inventory management for resupply, facilitating accurate case preparation and throughput. Items are listed in the order in which they are physically located in the supply room. Expensive items are highlighted to avoid inadvertent wasted openings and items being phased out can be replaced singly or en-masse.

Surgeon's Procedure Cards

DocOpC manages scheduling, supplies and revenue for the operating room.

How DocOpC Helps

DocOpC Procedure Cards are an industry first. Utilizing a patent pending template system, users can quickly create stepwise and granular checklists that are procedure and surgeon specific. These electronic cards are organized for quick reference and are updated live from the OR. Items are sorted appropriately, with detailed notes and supporting images that can be added at any time. Cards can be edited singly or en-masse to reflect surgeons’ changing preferences. Staff can “study” upcoming cases prior to surgery.

Surgical Charge Capture

DocOpC manages scheduling, supplies and revenue for the operating room.

How DocOpC Helps

Run either during or after the surgical case, charge capture is based on the assigned pick sheet and optionally integrates with the existing facility systems to deplete inventories and accurately add charges to patient bills. It automatically captures time charges, and through integration with the pick sheet module allows for continuous updating of the pick sheet to maintain currency.

Step one: Scheduling

The systems used by surgical facilities and clinics are disconnected, leading to the bulk of scheduling tasks being duplicated between clinics and facilities. Scheduling begins with the doctor’s office filling out demographics and case information, and obtaining pre-authorization; this information is faxed, emailed, or called to the surgical scheduler.

DocOpC Scheduling

Unified scheduling bypasses the duplicate data entry performed between staff at clinics and surgical facilities. This virtually eliminates emails and faxes between them, minimizing the number of phone calls.

Step two: Scheduling

The hospital accepts the case, placing it on the calendar, registers the patient, arranges the room assignments, and manually notifies necessary representatives and vendors.

DocOpC Scheduling

Live white-board functionality for room assignments and times is provided, and an abbreviated, customizable version is available for display in the waiting rooms.

Scheduling allows sharing case details with reps & assists and other ancillary personnel and allows surgeons to track medical coding as well as patient and insurance payments.  These surgical participants are notified of any changes such as surgery date, time or cancellations.

STEP THREE: Pick Sheet

1-2 Days before surgery, staff prepare by pulling items listed on the pick sheet generated by the facility’s EHR. The pick sheet items are not ordered as they are arranged in the supply room and are not in the language of the OR. Ineffective inventory management leads to last minute scrambling for supplies.

DocOpC Pick Sheet

No longer dependent on printed pick sheets, our electronic picking in supply room order provides more efficient picking and reporting. Per case missing items (needs) are reported to inventory management for resupply, allowing forward looking inventory and facilitating accurate case preparation and throughput.

The pick sheet items for a surgical case are kept up-to-date through our proprietary continuous updating process.

STEP FOUR: Pick Sheet

The morning of surgery, a scrub tech or operating room nurse goes through each item on the pick sheet to verify that all the materials necessary for the case are in the operating room, and begins opening the items. Without written guidance, many items on the pick sheet are opened regardless of whether or not they will be utilized, leading to expensive waste. This waste is compounded by the lack of cost transparency to the staff and surgeons.

DocOpC Pick Sheet

Missing items from the initial pick are highlighted and action plan for procurement reviewed. Items that should be available but not opened are clearly delineated.

Item cost is clearly evident and shared with the entire surgical team; high ticket items are highlighted to avoid inadvertent costly wasted openings.

STEP FIVE: Preference Card

The preference card is a hand-written index card or free-text at the top of an EHR generated pick sheet. This vital information is offline and difficult to keep updated as the surgeons’ preferences evolve over time. In addition, preop nurses and anesthesia providers rely on verbal communications or notes to communicate surgeons’ preferences.

DocOpC Procedure Card

DocOpC has easily updatable electronic preference cards, with granular notes and integrated photos. This allows unprecedented room and staff preparation. DocOpC procedure cards allow crowdsourced best practices across surgeons and facilities.

Access on mobiles, desktops, and tablets means that everyone has access to the surgeons preferences.

STEP SIX: Preference Card

During surgery, the lack of up-to-date pick sheets and preference cards leads to case delays and “door swings” while requisite items are hurriedly retrieved. (See Opening doors in OR increases infection risks).

DocOpC Procedure Card

Real-time, “on-the-fly” updates to the preference cards occur from the OR with approval from team leaders.

STEP SEVEN: Charge Capture

Lack of currency for pick sheets leads to erroneous charge capture, reducing the accuracy and completeness of surgical charges and supply tracking.

DocOpC Charge Capture

Run either during or after the surgical case, charge capture is based on the assigned pick sheet and optionally integrates with the existing facility systems to deplete inventories and accurately add charges to patient bills. It automatically captures time charges, and through integration with the pick sheet module allows for continuous updating of the pick sheet to maintain currency.