A Quest for the Structure of Intra- and Postoperative Surgical Team Networks: Does the Small World Property Evolve over Time?

TL;DR

This study investigates the structure and evolution of intra- and postoperative surgical team networks, confirming their small world properties and highlighting the importance of stable key personnel for network cohesion and potential process improvements.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of the small world properties and temporal evolution of surgical team networks using real EMR data from a large medical center.

Findings

Both intra- and postoperative networks exhibit small world structure.

Network density is high, especially intraoperatively, indicating cohesive provider clusters.

Postoperative networks tend to lose cohesiveness over time.

Abstract

We examined the structure of intra- and postoperative case-collaboration networks among the surgical service providers in a quaternary-care academic medical center, using retrospective electronic medical record (EMR) data. We also analyzed the evolution of the network properties over time, as changes in nodes and edges can affect the network structure. We used de-identified intra- and postoperative data for adult patients, ages >= 21, who received nonambulatory/nonobstetric surgery at Shands at the University of Florida between June 1, 2011 and November 1, 2014. The intraoperative segment contained 30,245 surgical cases, and the postoperative segment considered 30,202 hospitalizations. Our results confirmed the existence of strict small world structure in both intra- and postoperative surgical team networks. A sudden declining trend is expected in the future in both intra- and postoperative networks, since the small world property is currently at its peak. In addition, high network density was observed in the intraoperative segment and partially in postoperative one, representing the existence of cohesive clusters of providers. We also observed that the small world property is exhibited more in the intraoperative compared to the postoperative network. Analyzing the temporal aspects of the networks revealed the postoperative segment tends to lose its cohesiveness as the time passes. Our results highlight the importance of stability of personnel in key positions. This highlights the important role of the central players in the network that offers change-leaders the opportunity to quantify and target those nodes as mediators of process change.