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Table 1 The five indicators of OR efficiency

From: Operating room efficiency in a low resource setting: a pilot study from a large tertiary referral center in Ethiopia

Start time

Time the first patient of the day entered the operating room 

Late start = later than 15 min of scheduled time (after 8:15 am)

Turnover time

Time between one patient leaving the operating table and another patient entering (time for cleaning and preparing for next patient)

Long turnover = time in between cases > 25 min

Finish time

Time the last patient of the day left the operating room

Early finish time = 1 h before working hours (before 3:00 pm)

Late finish time = 1 h after working hours (after 5:00 pm)

OR utilization

Proportion of time within the working hours in which a patient was in the operating room (does not include turnover time)

Low utilization = less than < 75% of working hour utilized (< 6 h)

Over utilization = more than allocated working hours (> 100% / > 8 h)

Cancellation rate

Day of surgery cancellation

High cancellation rate = greater than 5%