The challenges facing surgery and how health systems can respond

According to Monteiro, Cottier, and Trigonoplos, the future of surgery isn't solely dependent on new technologies and innovations.

The main challenge for healthcare systems is the growing demand for surgeries and the limited supply of ORs, surgeons, and anesthesiologists. On top of that, hospitals are seeing increasing costs per case with potential margin decreases, even with volume increases, meaning health systems face the pressure of full beds with no margin, impacting operations, margins, and access.

According to Monteiro, traditional solutions like adding more beds or staff are no longer sufficient to keep pace with demand growth — health systems need to explore new solutions and approaches.

To address this, the experts said that proactively managing demand and matching surgeon and OR supply is crucial to improve efficiency.

Most health systems lack real-time visibility into OR supply and surgeon capacity, which can lead to uneven distribution of cases and reduced surgeon productivity. In addition, inaccurate OR block scheduling based on limited data can contribute to overruns, overtime, and inefficiencies.

As a result, predicting appointment cancellations and proactively intervening can prevent wasted OR block time and improve utilization.

This is where technology can help, the experts said. For example, AI-enabled scheduling algorithms can analyze historical data and provide more accurate scheduling recommendations, reducing overruns, and saving costs.

In addition, AI-enabled pre-op planning software and extended reality tools can enhance treatment decision-making and precision in surgeries.

"Chase problems, not solutions," Cottier said. "Start with the fundamental question of what work needs improvement and then find the technology to address those problems."

Overcoming resistance and driving adoption

When implementing new technologies, health systems will undoubtedly encounter the obstacle of clinician resistance, which the experts say is often rooted in previous unsuccessful rollouts and a lack of trust in changing leadership.

Health systems need to engage clinicians in the development and implementation of new tools in order to ensure their acceptance and effectiveness.

In addition, allowing surgeons to retain decision-making authority while using AI and machine learning tools could also increase acceptance and adoption.

According to Trigonoplos, it's important to remember that solving these problems won't be a quick fix.

"Don't go into this type of work and expect to be able to solve it within a couple of months," he said. "The hard work is understanding how do we do this and enfranchise our partners."

Surgical demand and financial pressures are increasing, but leading health systems are taking proactive steps to meet these challenges head-on. Learn about the three capabilities that organizations are developing to address future surgical pressures and ensure operational and financial sustainability.