Authors:
Julio Díaz
;
Juan Cano
;
Adolfo Jiménez
and
Antonio Alonso
Affiliation:
Hospital Regional Universitario Carlos Haya, Spain
Keyword(s):
Performance, Operating rooms, Surgery, Waiting lists, Management, Software.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Biomedical Engineering
;
Health Information Systems
;
Software Systems in Medicine
Abstract:
This paper reports the features of a computer program (AQuA) developed to improve surgical management at the Carlos Haya Regional University Hospital in Málaga, Spain. Several factors have forced the development of this digital solution: i) our hospital is made of four buildings some 5 km apart, ii) there are 41 operating rooms attended by 319 surgeons and 72 anaesthesiologists and, most important, iii) some predefined pathologies are protected by law in our region and have a guaranteed limited waiting time (LWT) before surgery. In this complex milieu our program was conceived, developed and put to work. It has been running for just over a year with progressive implementation in surgical departments. Some facts that seem to indicate the usefulness of the program: the number of patients with diseases with LWT that have received operations has increased in 14 months from 1,145 to 1,564 patients/month (36.59% increase) and surgical performance has increased from 65.93% to 71.80% in the
same period. Since all other conditions related to surgical activity have remained unchanged the improvement seems to be attributable to the AQuA program. AQuA is a comprehensive, flexible, friendly and open program capable of dealing with most hospital settings.
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