Theatres and decontamination
undertake, for which they receive certificates.” Stuart went on to outline some strategies that can help with building and sustaining a collaborative robotic-assisted surgery programme. These help optimise operational efficiency, reduce total cost of treatment, as well as improve patient outcomes. Leadership: Establishing leadership
structures is key. Stuart suggested the robotic- assisted surgery programme should be viewed as the “orchestra” and the robotic surgery steering committee (i.e. the leadership group) the “composer”. “They establish where the programme is going and how they are going to do it – it is the decision-making centre. The whole team needs to align on goals, with representation from marketing and comms, sharing the great work that’s happening. You will also need representation from booking and scheduling, theatres, reprocessing, as well as data support,” he commented. Standardised workflows: Workflows need
to be standardised across theatres and decontamination. Setting up the theatre for robotic-assisted surgery is a “team event” and every person plays a key role. “This mirrors what Prof. Briggs said about the high flow lists – we try to replicate this within the robotic theatre,” Stuart commented.
“We need to ensure the surgical team and anaesthetic team and nursing team are all on the same page. Is it clear what the targeted start time is for the morning, for knife to skin? Does everybody know how they’re going to cover breaks and lunch. Who is going to be in the room? This all comes down to communication and planning at the start of the day. Everybody plays their part and it’s a standardised process. “Also, what can we do in parallel to reduce the
overall time it takes for setup in the morning and turnover – can we put that into ‘a task overlap model’? We need to ensure that when we have someone new, filling in for the day, they know exactly what they need to do, when they need to do it and how that matches up with the rest of the operations happening that day.” He highlighted the use of a planning strategy
for the team, with the use of “a swim lane diagram”, outlining the different roles in the room, and what each person is doing, at each point, on the day. The same principles are applied within the reprocessing department. “This outlines the flow of instrumentation and accessories as they arrive onto the department, who is doing what, how it all matches up, and the expected turnaround time.” Leveraging data-driven tools: My Intuitive is
a secure platform that brings together surgical and bronchoscopy data, learning tools, and
Setting up the theatre for robotic-assisted surgery is a “team event” and every person plays a key role.
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www.clinicalservicesjournal.com I July 2026
performance dashboards, helping the team make informed and timely decisions for their programe. “Through this data, you can see when
the robot was used, what it was used for, start times, and finish times. You can track instrumentation, spend, and ordering. It is a place where you can identify opportunities for improvement – because data helps drive continuous improvement,” Stuart commented. “The system also tracks the surgeon’s hand
movements, while they are performing the operation. This visibility enables identification of improvement opportunities and supports a culture of continuous improvement,” he explained. He showed an example of a “daily wrap up sheet”, which records key aspects that can drive improvement in theatres. “Teams are prompted to ask: did we have all the equipment that was needed for the day? Was anything missing? Do we need to make changes to the preference cards? It also records additional feedback, to identify any challenges experienced that day. This supports the team to have a plan in place for the next day. It also records some of the timings too – everybody likes a bit of healthy competition when it comes to docking the system; it took four minutes today, three minutes the next day etc. People can see how they’re improving, if we are recording that information,” he continued. Training: Finally, the most important part is the people, said Stuart. “It’s the people that make the programme – how are we empowering and training them? Are they confident to do what
Credit: Intuitive Surgical
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