A prospective study of the components of operating room utilisation time for robotic urological surgery in a public teaching hospital setting

Introduction and aim: Although there are several publications on learning curves and patient outcomes in robotic surgery, the literature is lacking in depth analysis of operating room (OR) utilisation time which is an expansive healthcare resource for robotic surgery, especially in urology. Thus, we aimed to study individual operating theatre component times in order to improve performance and efficacy. Method: A cross-specialty robotic-surgery programme was established at our institution in mid-June 2016 using the daVinci Xi dual console robot. A detailed database was established before initiation of the project. The times taken for each element of the preparation and completion of robotic urological procedure were collected by an independent nurse for all the procedures. Primary outcome measures were total OR time, operative time and console time. Secondary outcome measures were port placement time, set-up time and non-operative time. The statistical significance was calculated by using the Student’s t-test, Fisher’s exact test or Wilcoxon matched pairs test where appropriate. Result: Thirty consecutive urological cases were analysed. Mean total OR time, operative time and console time were 320.86 (range 172–485), 235.7 (124–295) and 152.3 min (66–219) respectively. Console time accounted for about less than half of OR time. A significant proportion of OR time was non-operative time (almost one third). After an initial learning curve, set-up time was consistently maintained for most robotic procedures. Conclusions: The findings of this study have three implications for clinical practice. Firstly, console time contributed about half of the OR time. This can be optimised with experience. Secondly robot set-up time is likely to reduce with the experience of the whole team. Finally, non-operative OR time constitute a significant one third of the OR time during robotic surgery. Efforts to reduce non-surgical aspect of OR time will have potential to reduce cost and improve efficiency. Level of Evidence: 4.