Operating Rooms (ORs) are the heartbeat of any hospital. They are a hub of collaboration, technology, data and the delivery of life changing moments.
Yet they remain amongst the most expensive resources in healthcare, particularly if used inefficiently. From scheduling delays to operative disruptions, from wheels in and out being late or doors being left open too long, every facet of an operative day is an opportunity for opportunity gains and loses; it’s not just the financial health of the hospital on the metre, it’s the emotional and physical wellbeing of your surgical team. It’s the health of your patients at stake.
In the demanding environment of an operating room, every decision matters. Healthcare teams rely on precision, collaboration, communication, connectivity and expertise to ensure they can deliver the best possible care. In this context, data has become an indispensable tool for driving new levels of insights and efficiencies that can ultimately drive real change. Change that can help teams maximise their collective skills. Change that can help teams work smarter, not harder.
In Proximie's latest white paper - which was informed by nearly 100 OR experts across the UK and UK - we highlighted the huge cost of inefficiencies in the OR and the five strategies for driving greater OR capacity and increased throughput.
The report highlighted key areas where operating rooms are under strain and where improvements can drive meaningful impact, including:
Despite the issues raised, fundamentally, OR workflow transformation is attainable and attainable within any given hospital's current resources. The report highlights:
Ultimately, the work smarter not harder ethos is not just achievable, it’s been clinically shown. Proximie is redefining how operating rooms function by enabling healthcare teams to record, collect, analyse, and report on all ambient data and drive immediate action through its use of real-time data and automation. By capturing these surgical moments - moments that would otherwise be confined to a moment in time and then gone forever - Proximie can help transform this data into actionable insights that enables skilled teams to deliver more optimised care in real-time.
It means the activity in any given OR moves beyond descriptive and subjective views of what the sources of inefficiencies are. With Proximie, we can help teams move beyond disconnected, contextless data points to a more holistic, integrated approach that captures a complete and objective picture of what is actually happening.
Proximie’s CEO and Founder, Dr. Nadine Hachach-Haram, explains: “Operating Theatres are hugely expensive assets with highly-skilled staff and patients’ lives literally on the table. Despite housing some of the most innovative medical devices in the world, these environments are incredibly analogue with no integral data layer connecting devices to each other, let alone connecting surgeons to experts and collating data.
“Using Proximie, teams can now capture ambient, objective data on the actions and dynamics of their operational flow and through AI-powered analysis of this data we are able to derive insights that help improve system level efficiencies. A means to completely unpack the previously mythical OR.”
Proximie unifies ambient, frame-based procedural data and scheduling data from the Electronic Health Records (EHR), this can then be further enhanced and augmented with device data. This comprehensive approach provides teams with a holistic view of operating room workflows, enabling them to identify bottlenecks, streamline processes, and improve coordination at every stage.
Nadine explains: “We unlock value for both clinical workforce and administrators that are looking at efficiency, productivity and cost effectiveness. Everyone - from the C-Suite to the Scrub team - can get something out of the performance picture Proximie helps to paint.”
By leveraging the power of aggregated data, Proximie is transforming the way healthcare teams work, making every move smarter, not harder. By seamlessly integrating with hospital systems and medical devices, Proximie helps to connect the entire surgical ecosystem, ensuring teams can access, record, and review procedures with ease.
No wasted time, no inefficiencies, just a more connected, coordinated way to operate.
In a recent case study, Proximie ran a data-led analysis of perioperative operations in partnership with a major US healthcare provider, as a means to gather detailed data about surgical procedures and workflows across operating rooms.
Across 35 days, more than 700 hours of video were recorded and analysed alongside more than 10,000 data points from surgical devices and ambient video data to help reveal huge areas of workflow optimisation opportunities, improve workflows for practitioners, achieve better outcomes for patients and unlock significant economic gains.
Overall, the study revealed an opportunity to optimize 24% of total OR time and the simulations showed that fully leveraging this optimisation opportunity could allow each OR to accommodate one additional procedure per day. Crucially, these optimisations could happen without the need for any additional resource.
Beyond operational gains, these improvements also have a direct human impact. A more structured and predictable OR schedule enables surgical teams to work in more efficient and less stressful environments. More cohesive and happier teams ultimately results in better patient care. By streamlining workflows and reducing administrative burdens, it lets teams focus on what truly matters: delivering the best possible care. To read the full case study, click here.
Nadine concludes: “Surgery is a team effort, it's a team pursuit. Every single person within the ecosystem of surgery has a crucial role to play. By connecting people, insights, and technology, we’re not just improving workflows; we’re helping healthcare teams work more collaboratively to deliver the best possible care for their patients."
