Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, cilt.32, sa.1, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
Background: Effective management of the operating room serves as a connector between patients and healthcare teams and institutions. This study monitored the surgical process of patients between the periods when they left their clinic to undergo a surgical operation and when they came back to their clinic after the surgery, to identify the waiting times spent in the waiting areas and to determine the reasons that cause patients to wait. Methods: This is a longitudinal follow-up study. Surgical operations related to the clinics of general surgery, otorhinolaryngology, orthopaedics and traumatology conducted in a university hospital and within the business hours were followed up for 30 business days. Data were collected from 416 patients who underwent elective surgical operations between May and October 2019. Descriptive statistics and covariance analysis were used to analyse the data. Results: The patients waited in nine areas during the surgical operation. The operating room occupancy rate was 62.01 ± 21.47%. The mean preoperative waiting time was 41.36 ± 28.86 min, the mean postoperative waiting time was 27.30 ± 16.07 min and the mean total waiting time was 65.84 ± 34.17 min. The most common reasons for waiting were the delay in completing the previous surgery (33.8%), preparation of the team (23.8%), preparation of the tables and equipment (16.1%), the reasons related to the personnel (13%) and cleaning of the operating room (9.2%). They had to wait in the T3 (31.68 ± 24.04 min), T4 (10.37 ± 16.68 min) and T8 (25.00 ± 15.79 min) areas for the longest period. Delay in completing the previous surgery (51.5%), which accounted for the largest portion of waiting time in area T3, preparation of the tables and equipment (44.8%) in area T4 and personnel-related factors (23.8%) in area T8 were the primary reasons for prolonged patient waiting times. Conclusion: This study found that patients experienced long waiting times due to various factors, which can be reduced through organizational improvements. Planning of the operating room and effective communication among team members are key factors in these arrangements.