Should this surgeon run staggered rooms?

2 rooms · 7:00 AM – 3:00 PM · 480 min
Created by Dr. Patrick Murphy
Patient in room → skin open
position · anesthesia · prep · drape
min
Skin open → skin close
operative time
min
Skin close → out of room
emergence · transfer
min
Turnover
wheels-out to next wheels-in
min

Cases / day
Surgeon use
Room A — Utilization
OR Utilization
Room B — Utilization
OR Utilization
Multiplier
Dot represents the multiplier — how many more cases the surgeon can do in the same full OR day.
Modelled Day
prep operate close turnover surgeon idle
Methodology & assumptions

Cadence. A new case can start every max( (prep + operative + close + turnover) ÷ 2, operative + 5 min walk ). If the surgeon term is larger, the model is surgeon-limited (rooms feed faster than the surgeon can operate); if the room term is larger, the model is room-limited (the surgeon waits between cases).

Cases per day. Hard stop at 3:00, so only cases whose patient is out of the room by then count. The first is out at prep + operative + close; one more lands every cadence after. Turnover after the last case is ignored.

Surgeon use. Operative minutes actually performed ÷ the 480-min day (cases × operative ÷ 480).

Room utilization. Each room's OR utilization is the number of cases it runs × the full case cycle (prep + operative + close + turnover) ÷ 480. Cases alternate between rooms — Room A takes cases 1, 3, 5… and Room B takes 2, 4, 6… — so when the day fits an odd total, Room A runs one more case than Room B and will show a slightly higher utilization.

Assumptions. The surgeon is needed only skin-to-skin; prep, emergence and turnover run in parallel in the other room with a second team. Times are fixed — no variability, delays, add-ons or emergencies — so this is a best-case ceiling. The multiplier never quite reaches 2×, since the first case's prep is never hidden and the last case needs its full tail.