While a
few of our clients are analyzing their data internally,
the great majority of institutions that have purchased CalculatOR™
licenses have chosen to outsource the analysis.
While we are
certainly happy to sell licenses directly to clients for their own use,
our experience is that outsourcing the analysis will cost much
less in the long run, and
be less frustrating, than trying to run CalculatOR™
internally.
Although the
software itself is easy to install and run, the “problem” is that is
takes a considerable amount of time and effort for in house personnel to
learn how to prepare their data, apply the necessary constraints to make
the model fit each institution’s requirements, and interpret the results
correctly. Given that an institution is not likely to want to perform the
analyses more frequently than 4 times a year, much of this knowledge is
forgotten between analyses. We have encountered this situation even at
academic institutions with full time, masters level management scientists
on staff.
Typically, a consultant will help you prepare the
data from your OR or anesthesia information system, perform the actual analysis, and
provide your with the reports. Ordinarily, such engagements can be conducted mostly through telephone calls and
emails rather than on-site. During this process, the consultant should be
willing to teach you how to do subsequent analyses, should you decide to
subsequently perform these steps in-house. Very often, however,
institutions decide to send subsequent data to the analyst several times a
year, who then re-runs the program and produces new
reports.
Given the significant political considerations that are usually involved
when changing surgical OR allocation, having an independent analysis
performed by
someone with no ties to the institution can be quite effective in helping
manage the angst that these changes usually produce.
Our recommended consultant is Franklin Dexter, MD,
PhD, from the University
of Iowa, Department of Anesthesia, Division of Management
Consulting. He developed the science that is embedded in CalculatOR, and has worked
closely with MDA to implement the algorithms in the program. There is a great deal of information at his
website www.FranklinDexter.net
that explains the range of services offered by the Division of Management
Consulting and typical costs. These include the development of customized educational
materials, based on your data, to help teach your OR managers and staff
the principles behind the decision making processes. At the site you will
also find a variety of continuing educational
programs describing the relevant OR management techniques.
