The Impact of Surgical Team Familiarity on Length of Procedure and Length of Stay: Inconsistent Relationships Across Procedures, Team Members, and Sites

Background Team familiarity has been shown to be important for operative efficiency and number of complications, but it is unclear for which types of operations and for which team members familiarity matters the most. The objective of this study is to further our understanding of familiarity in the OR by quantifying the relative importance of familiarity among all possible core team dyads, and defining the impact of team level familiarity on outcomes. Materials and methods Using a retrospective chart and administrative data review, five years of data from two health systems (14 hospitals) and across two procedures, (knee arthroplasty and lumbar laminectomy) were included. Multilevel modeling approach and a dominance analysis were conducted. Results For each previous surgery that any two members of the core surgical team had participated in together, the length of surgery decreased significantly. The familiarity of the scrub and the surgeon was the most significant relationship for knee arthroplasty across the two hospitals, and laminectomies at one hospital. Conclusions The relationship between familiarity of the surgical team and surgical efficiency may be more complex than previously articulated. Familiarity may be more important for certain types of procedures. The familiarity of certain dyads may be more important for certain types of procedures.