Tips for Anesthesia Practices to get the Surgeons to the OR on time.

1. Make wake-up calls. An anesthesiologist in Maryland was quoted as saying, “If the telephone goes unanswered, use the cell phone. Call repeatedly. Call their answering service. Our physicians now arrive on time and all is well.” Another method is to p
2. Discipline repeat offenders. Some facilities levy fines on surgeons who are chronically late for the first case of the day. Others fine the surgeons for every minute that they are late. One Pennsylvania ambulatory surgical center (ASC) sends surgeons a
3. Post offenders’ names. Surgeons who are regularly or periodically late may be inspired to arrive on time by the embarrassment of seeing their names posted on a “list of shame,” according to the practice of one Illinois hospital that has a zero-tolerance
4. Document first-case arrival. Unless there are data to prove tardiness, some physicians will challenge the perception that they are frequently late. An electronic sign-in or a swipe card system can provide the data to support a penalty, if there is one.

Notes: There are various options for reducing the rate of delayed starts and operating room turnovers attributable to late surgeon arrival. These tips originally appeared in the November 2010 issue of Outpatient Surgery. The article by Dan O’Connor was directed to readers who manage both types of physician, but the strategies can be implemented (or at least proposed) by a practice that provides an anesthesiologist-medical director.