Setting a quality indicator for actual surgery time relative to scheduled surgery time in the context of increasing robotic-assisted thoracic surgery cases

• Published in: General thoracic and cardiovascular surgery Vol. 71; no. 7; pp. 396 - 402
• Main Authors: Ozeki, Naoki, Ueno, Harushi, Saeki, Jun, Kadomatsu, Yuka, Kato, Taketo, Nakamura, Shota, Fukumoto, Koichi, Fukui, Takayuki, Chen-Yoshikawa, Toyofumi Fengshi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Singapore Springer Nature Singapore 01.07.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Cardiac Surgery; Cardiology; Corporate planning; Fees & charges; Fiscal years; Hospitals; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Original Article; Patients; Robotics; Surgeons; Surgical Oncology; Thoracic Surgery; United States > US; Japan; Robotic surgery; Surgery time; Lobectomy; Lung; Video-assisted thoracic surgery
• ISSN: 1863-6705; 1863-6713
• DOI: 10.1007/s11748-022-01903-6

Objective This study aimed to demonstrate to the involved departments the goal of increasing the number of robotic-assisted thoracic surgery (RATS) cases/surgeons and acceptable surgery times. Methods This retrospective study included 1572 patients who underwent thoracic surgery from fiscal year (FY) 2018 to FY 2021. The factors evaluated included the number of surgery cases and actual and scheduled surgery times. Results The total number of RATS and total surgery cases increased after the quality indicator (QI) setting ( n  = 363, 360, 417, and 432 in FY 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021, respectively). In FY 2020, 93.3% of the QI target was achieved, while in FY 2021, 88% was achieved. The number of RATS lobectomy/segmentectomy increased as the FY progressed ( n  = 31, 47, 58, and 116 in FY 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021, respectively). The mean surgical time by RATS starters decreased in FY 2020 and 2021 (171.4 min.; 74 cases; seven RATS starters) compared with those in FY 2018 and 2019 (198.0 min.; 57 cases; six RATS starters) ( P  = 0.002). Conclusions The goal of increasing the number of surgery cases and RATS cases/surgeons within the given framework was achieved by setting the QI.