An empty OR loses money
When holding an OR for block time, make sure that your surgical coordinator calls each surgeon's office a week in advance to make sure that he's going to be booking surgery and not canceling at the last minute. You can also mail printouts of your block-time list to all your physicians and ask that they let you know in advance of any time they won't be using.

If a surgeon doesn't have any scheduled cases, release his block time. Review the monthly OR schedule each day and keep a list of the days when you have open booking time. Twice a month, fax every surgical coordinator a list of those times by simply listing the hours your ORs are free at the bottom of a standard fax form.

Judith A. Pasqualoni
Director of Operations
Hamden Surgery Center
Hamden, Conn.
writeMail("jpasqualoni@snet.net")