Improving neurosurgical operating room efficiency by standardizing patient transfer process: a quality improvement study

Well-organized patient transfer management improves the efficiency and safety of operation, and the satisfaction of medical care in the operating room (OR). Here we explored whether patient transfer improvement by OR and ward nurse promotes surgery efficiency and satisfaction. A quality control team was set up and the members collected data of 1178 patients undergoing selective surgery to make analysis and identify problems in the surgery patient transfer. Then improvement measures were applied to another 1260 patients undergoing selective surgery in patient transfer. After improvement, qualification rate of preoperative preparation, medical record preparation, surgical site mark, postoperative instrument and equipment preparation and intraoperative nursing records were significantly increased. Time between two successive operations was shortened. Satisfaction degree of patients, surgeons and nurses was improved. Thus, we concluded that standardized neurosurgical patient transfer effectively enhanced OR efficiency and safety and therefore improved satisfaction of patients, surgeons and nurses.