Article Text
Abstract
Scheduling surgical procedures among operating rooms (ORs) is mistakenly regarded as merely a tedious administrative task. However, the growing demand for surgical care and finite hours in a day qualify OR time as a limited resource. Accordingly, the objective of this manuscript is to reframe the process of OR scheduling as an ethical dilemma of allocating scarce medical resources. Recommendations for ethical allocation of OR time—based on both familiar and novel ethical values—are provided for healthcare institutions and individual surgeons.
- surgery
- resource allocation
- clinical ethics
- applied and professional ethics
- allocation of health care resources
Data availability statement
All data relevant to the study are included in the article.
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- surgery
- resource allocation
- clinical ethics
- applied and professional ethics
- allocation of health care resources
Data availability statement
All data relevant to the study are included in the article.
Footnotes
Contributors All authors contributed substantially to the conception, design, drafting, critical revision and final approval of the work. All authors accept accountability for all aspects of the work.
Funding PDK is supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (grant number T32CA106183).
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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