On Feb. 19, 2025, all OR schedules began at 9 a.m. to accommodate a special Joint Grand Rounds between Perioperative Services, Department of Anesthesiology, Department of Gynecology, Department of Neurosurgery, Department of Orthopedics, Department of Surgery, and Department of Urology. The speaker was Katherine Sanders from Sanders Consulting, who spoke about “Optimizing Culture in the OR.”
“We in the Department of Surgery are grateful for the Department of Anesthesiology and the UW Health OR Leadership for partnering with us to support hiring a consultant with expertise in work-place design and systems engineering,” said Dr. Dawn Elfenbein, Vice Chair of Well-Being in the Department of Surgery.
This Grand Rounds focused on Workforce Well-Being and served as an opportunity to strengthen team connections and align with the shared goals of acknowledgement and awareness, team engagement, well-being and collaboration, professional accountability, and continuous improvement
“Culture is built slowly and often without us even realizing it is happening, and Dr. Sanders can help us ‘peel back the layers’ to get to the root of what leads to challenging workplace interactions in the OR,” Dr. Elfenbein said. “It takes all of us, and this is truly a collaborative effort.”