The Impact of Operating Room Team Familiarity on Perioperative Efficiency and Patient Safety Outcomes in Non-Cardiac Surgery
The Impact of Operating Room Team Familiarity on Perioperative Efficiency and Patient Safety Outcomes in Non-Cardiac Surgery
The goal of this retrospective observational cohort study is to investigate the association between operating room team familiarity and perioperative outcomes in non-cardiac surgery.
The operating room team includes surgeons, anesthesiologists, and operating room nurses. Team familiarity will be quantified using the Intraoperative Familiarity Score (IFS), which is calculated based on historical collaboration frequency among team members.
The study will evaluate whether different levels of operating room team familiarity are associated with operating room efficiency indicators and patient safety outcomes.
Data will be obtained from electronic medical records, anesthesia information management systems, and surgical databases of patients who underwent non-cardiac surgery at Zhongda Hospital.
This retrospective observational cohort study investigates the association between operating room team familiarity and perioperative outcomes in non-cardiac surgery.
The operating room team consists of surgeons, anesthesiologists, and operating room nurses. Operating room team familiarity is quantified using the Intraoperative Familiarity Score (IFS), which reflects the historical collaboration frequency among team members involved in surgical procedures.
The IFS is calculated based on the historical frequency of collaboration among all possible pairs of operating room team members, including surgeons, anesthesiologists, and operating room nurses. For each surgical procedure, previous working relationships among participating team members are assessed using historical surgical records. The IFS represents the overall familiarity level of the operating room team, with higher IFS values indicating greater familiarity among team members.
The primary objective of this study is to evaluate whether operating room team familiarity is associated with operating room efficiency. Operating room efficiency will be assessed using workflow time intervals, including pre-anesthesia preparation time, anesthesia induction time, and surgical duration.
Secondary objectives are to evaluate the association between operating room team familiarity and perioperative patient safety outcomes and healthcare utilization outcomes. These outcomes include intraoperative blood loss, postoperative intensive care unit admission, duration of intensive care unit stay, unplanned secondary surgery, unplanned hospital readmission, in-hospital mortality, length of hospital stay, and total hospitalization cost.
Additional analyses will evaluate whether operating room team composition characteristics, including team size and personnel changes during surgical procedures, influence perioperative outcomes or modify the association between team familiarity and clinical outcomes.
Inclusion Criteria:
• Adult patients (age ≥18 years) undergoing elective non-cardiac surgical procedures at Zhongda Hospital Southeast University between January 1, 2016 and March 31, 2025.
Exclusion Criteria: