Defining efficiency requires more fidelity

摘要

We would like to congratulate Pandit and colleagues for their formula which attempts to define the efficiency of surgical operating lists through the incorporation of three main elements: maximising utilisation, minimising over-running and minimising cancellations. They quite rightly suggest that this formula offers a more complete description of list performance than some more conventional measures. However, we believe that it still has significant limitations and will not always accurately represent the efficiency of a complex process