Training Surgical Staff on ZEISS VERACITY SURGERY PLANNER Improves the Flow of Operative Report Generation

I was an early adopter of ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner. That did not mean, however, that I incorporated into my surgical practice all aspects of this technology upon adoption. Just as one would with any other technology, I slowly incorporated ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner into my surgical and clinical workflow to ensure that integration was smooth, unforeseen hiccups were addressed early, and staff (and I, the surgeon) were comfortable with the user interface. In short, I started small and leveled up.

As ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner became a more integral part of my surgical center's operational workflow, I further integrated it into the OR, which empowered my staff to generate accurate and timely operative notes, allowed me to efficiently sign-off on such reports (rather than spending time after surgery reconciling reports), and prevented us from scrambling to backfill roles when staff departed.

At my surgical clinic, we used to rely on a trio of staff members tasked with billing and coding to reconcile templated reports generated by ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner with any deviations or unexpected adjustments particular to a given patient's case. My surgical staff would write deviations on index cards—for example, Mrs. Smith required a pupillary expansion device not originally selected in the surgical plan—and pass those cards to our billing and coding team, who adjusted the operative reports as needed and sent them to me to sign off after a day of surgery was complete.

The system was solid, but still required my team to huddle well after the fact to finalize operative notes. Why not generate reports immediately in the OR, where we could note deviations in real time and empower the surgeon to authorize operative notes while the case was a as fresh as possible?

All users access ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner via a web browser on a tablet, laptop, or desktop. Incorporating lightweight and non-disruptive hardware into the OR is easy—or, in setups where web-accessible equipment already exists in the OR, there is no need to adjust the layout of the OR. Regardless, the first step to incorporating ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner into an OR is ensuring that your hardware needs are addressed.

I was the first surgeon in my practice to institute a protocol that generated real-time operative reports. The first step was training and empowering my surgical staff (nurses and technicians) to participate in digitally documenting routine case in real time directly within the “OR Module” of the ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner. Initially, we would have someone else double check their work after the OR day. After 1 to 2 days, however, my surgery staff became capable enough “sign off” or finalize these routine cases even before the patient left the OR.

As changes to the surgical plan occur in the OR, my staff identifies them and logs them into ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner in real time. If there are any questions, issues, or unexpected events at the end of a case, I promptly review the software-generated operative note on the screen , ensuring that the relevant changes were made (if they were needed at all). I then immediately authorize the nurse or staff member to sign off on the OR Module and generate the operative report.

No more index cards. No more communications between myself and the billing and coding team hours after the case. Just real-time adjustment and submission that moves a task off of all of our plates and allows me to better focus on the patients who remain on the surgical schedule.

One unforeseen benefit of moving to real-time operative note generation: billing and coding staff have been freed to focus on other high-value responsibilities. Whereas before they were tasked with reconciling the index cards tied to specific operative reports, as well as verifying simpler (but still time-consuming) case notes, this wing of my staff now prioritizes billing and coding accuracy.

We did not experience the expected headaches when my three-member billing and coding team was slimmed down to a one-member team due to staff departures. Relying on ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner to generate real-time operative notes for the majority of our cases meant that there was less report-based administrative burden, and that the tasks previously absorbed by a behind-the scenes three-person team, could now be managed by a single employee for all of our surgeons. We did not scramble to backfill the legacy administrative roles, and will likely cross-train a trusted staff member to reinforce the billing and coding team rather than find a novice candidate who requires ground-up training.

Training surgical staff on the ins and outs of ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner in the OR has led to smoother surgical sessions for me individually and for my practice at large. After surgical staff perfected the process in my OR, other surgeons in my clinic adopted our protocol. By leveraging the power of ZEISS VERACITY Surgery Planner to unlock our on-site staff’s full potential, our practice has streamlined surgical case documentation, optimized daily workflows, and ensured greater accuracy across the board.

^{The statements of the author reflect only his personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of any institution with whom he is affiliated.
The author has a contractual or other financial relationship with Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc. and has received financial support.}