TITLE:  Newsvendor, Behavior, and the Importance of Agreements (Contracts) in Operating Room Management

SPEAKER: Franklin Dexter

ABSTRACT:

It’s been 15 years since recognition that planning the operating room hours into which cases are scheduled is a single period (perishable asset) newsvendor problem. A typical (real-world) problem would be choosing between an 8 hr or 10 hr workday given a mean ± standard deviation of workload = 8.6 ± 0.6 hr. The specific application is simple because: (a) there is complete knowledge of the demand and (b) fixed and few different container sizes (e.g., 8 hr and 10 hr days) so that how the optimization is solved has little effect on the quality of the solution. Furthermore, data sources, amount of data to use, and other details are not major issues. Rather, the practical challenges are different. (1) Psychological biases and anesthesia-hospital contracts influence implementation. (2) Lack of use is evident months later when anesthesiologists, nurse anesthetists, and operating room nurses are assigned to cases and there is a mismatch between staff scheduled to work that day with the caseload. 

Bio: During the past 15 years, Franklin Dexter, MD PhD, and his colleagues have developed much of the science in anesthesia group and operating room management. Dr. Dexter completed a Sc.B. in Applied Mathematics & Biology with Honors from Brown University; Masters Degree & Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering, with specialization in biomathematics, from Case Western Reserve University; M.D. degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine; and Anesthesiology residency at the University of Iowa. He is Professor in the Department of Anesthesia at the University of Iowa. Several times a year, he teaches a four-day intensive course in operating room management. He has given more than more than 135 invited presentations in the United States and abroad. He is Statistical Editor of Anesthesia & Analgesia, as well as Section Editor for Economics, Education, and Policy. Annually he reviews more than 700 papers and grant applications. As Director of the Division of Management Consulting in the Department of Anesthesia, he has performed more than 315 consultations, for more than 130 corporations. He has published more than 325 papers in the fields of operating room management and anesthesia. Details of his background, expertise, contact information, as well as the comprehensive bibliography of scientific papers in OR management, are at www.FranklinDexter.net