Misti Mattox, RN, CNOR, vice president of surgical services at Erlanger
Photo: Erlanger
Erlanger, a multi-hospital health system based in rural Tennessee, faced a problem: Its operating rooms were not being used as efficiently or strategically as they could, despite having excellent surgical teams and advanced technology like robotic systems.
THE CHALLENGE
The health system was seeing significant amounts of OR time go unused and was struggling to systematically fill gaps with the right cases. That underutilization meant surgeons often were left to navigate scheduling and capacity management in a largely manual, first-come/first-served environment that didn't align with strategic clinical and organizational goals.
"Even with scheduling support staff working diligently, the inherent complexity of matching surgeon availability, OR time and patient needs often resulted in inefficiencies that limited our ability to meet patient demands and didn't support the best use of expensive assets such as robotic platforms," said Misti Mattox, RN, CNOR, vice president of surgical services at Erlanger.
"Ultimately, the challenge boiled down to capacity that looked available on paper but wasn't being systematically activated," she added. "We needed a way to better understand and use our resources so we could fill every hour of OR time with the right cases, improve patient access, and support our clinicians without adding more administrative workload."
PROPOSAL
Erlanger studied the offerings of vendor Qventus. The company's surgical growth system is designed to transform how operating room time is allocated and used.
"The idea was this technology would act not merely as an advanced scheduling tool, but as a data-driven system working on top of our existing infrastructure to proactively identify and fill open OR slots with cases that aligned to both surgeon preferences and our broader strategic goals – in particular, maximizing OR utilization and patient access," Mattox explained.
"Moreover, the vendor proposed working side-by-side with our perioperative leadership, schedulers and surgeons to understand our workflows, preferences and programmatic goals," she continued. "They assured us their team would be embedded with us – not just during implementation, but ongoing – to configure the platform, drive adoption and ensure we were achieving our strategic objectives."
Ultimately, the platform aligns Erlanger's clinical goals with operational execution, giving care teams more time to focus on patient care rather than administrative tasks while helping grow in the areas that matter most to the health system and community, she added.
MEETING THE CHALLENGE
Qventus' surgical growth system identifies which partial or full blocks are unlikely to be fully utilized, often up to a month in advance, and prompts block owners to proactively release time that would otherwise go unused.
"Once time is released, the system markets that availability to the most appropriate surgeons based on established practice patterns, surgeon profiles, historical behavior and our strategic priorities – including maximizing access to our robotics capabilities," Mattox explained.
"The platform made it easier for surgeon offices to find and book available time – often in a matter of minutes rather than the hours of phone calls it used to take," she continued. "At the same time, leadership gained visibility into case volume trends, block utilization, referral patterns and growth opportunities to support more informed decision making."
The platform worked as a layer of intelligence and action on top of Erlanger's systems of record so OR teams, schedulers and surgeons could continue operating within familiar tools, she added.
"There was no need to overhaul established processes – the system surfaced opportunities, prompted releases and facilitated matches with minimal disruption," she said.
RESULTS
Erlanger achieved break-even on the investment in less than three months, and projections indicate the organization is on track to deliver a five times annualized return on investment, Mattox reported.
"In an industry where technology implementations often take six to 12 months just to break even, achieving this in under three months validated our decision to work with Qventus," she said. "This reinforces that smarter use of operating room time and capacity yields both clinical and economic benefits.
"We also achieved an increase of approximately 220 additional surgical cases per month when compared to the same period last year," she continued. "While we attribute this growth to multiple strategic initiatives – including provider recruitment, anesthesia expansion and operational improvements – the platform helped us capture and operationalize that growth by optimizing OR utilization and filling previously unused time slots."
After an initial ramp-up period, Erlanger saw the platform become instrumental in translating its strategic investments into actual case volume.
"This metric represents hundreds more patients each month receiving timely, high-quality care, including minimally invasive robotic procedures that improve outcomes and speed recovery," she explained. "Another critical metric was the creation of nearly 12 additional OR hours per room per month through automated block release and proactive utilization.
"This improvement reflects the system's continuous matching of available capacity with quality, safe and effective care and treatment, enabling our teams to operate more efficiently without adding physical ORs or additional staff," she continued.
The combination of AI-generated insights and surgeon participation drives meaningful behavioral and operational change – surgeons are building their practices, patients are getting faster access to care, and the health system is growing strategically, she concluded.
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