April 15, 2023

A unique surgical partnership: the valuable role of the Surgical

First AssistantCase Study: Dr. Eugene Murphy

Healthcare Reform

The impact of healthcare reform is far reaching, placing tremendous pressure on physicians to find ways to do more with less.

Increased Throughput and Improved Quality of Care

One uniquely relevant model, provided by Intralign’s Surgical First Assistant (SFA) Program, utilizes outsourced advanced-trained Surgical First Assistants, otherwise known as Surgeon Extenders, to support increased throughput and improved quality of care in the OR.

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Increased Clinical and Operational Efficiencies

Since early 2000, Dr. Eugene Murphy’s partnership with Intralign has strategically positioned him to meet the demands of a growing patient population and the changing realities of healthcare.

By integrating Intralign's experienced surgical processional into his surgical team, Dr. Murphy is able to increase clinical and operational efficiencies, while improving the quality of surgical care.

As a result, Dr. Murphy is able to maintain an unparalleled surgical volume, making him one of the Florida’s most esteemed surgeons.

Intralign SFAs

Acting as an extension of Dr. Murphy’s surgical capabilities, Intralign SFAs:• Increase surgical efficiency and

throughput• Are a unique hybrid of skill and

operations support• Offer up a level of expertise in a

wide variety of specialties • Helped Dr. Eugene Murphy

perform as many as 1,000 general surgeries per year

• Are currently utilized in 100% of Dr. Murphy’s surgeries

“Using a qualified SFA decreases the actual case time and often enables me to dictate the case while the SFA closes, which can make a big difference in what I can accomplish in a day”. -Dr. Eugene Murphy.

Enhances Surgical Efficiency

A typical general surgeon working without a Surgical First Assistant averages roughly 2.3 hours per surgery. Dr. Murphy, while working with an Intralign SFA, averages 1.06 hours per case. Making him 46% more efficient than the average surgeon.

*Time savings data is based on surgery time for HCPCS codes related to procedure area and derived from adding specific intra-operative activities that research has shown to produce reduced surgery time when taken over by SFA. Minute savings are from review of Intralign/Dr. Murphy’s 5,141 cases conducted from 2008-2013

Average Surgery Time Per Case0

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Dr. Eugene Murphy Average Surgery Time with Intralign SFA Compared to National

Surgical Average without SFA

National surgeon hourly average without SFA*Dr. Murphy hourly average while using Intralign SFA

Intralign partnership

The Intralign/Dr. Murphy partnership makes it possible for Dr. Murphy to improve this case time by as much as 74.4 minutes per procedure. This greatly reduces the time his patient spend under anesthesia, thereby allowing more time in recovery.

Procedure lengthsBy utilizing Intralign SFAs Dr. Eugene Murphy is able to:• Complete a carotid atherectomy

in 30 minutes• Complete an open abdominal

aortic aneurysms in 1 hour• Finish lap choles in 10-14

minutes• Finish hernia repairs in about 20

minutes• Run 2 rooms every Wed at a local

hospital• Assist the hospital in more

revenue-generating cases

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Increasing surgical efficiencies in light of growing healthcare pressures

“By integrating Intralign’s experienced surgical professionals into my surgical team, I am able to increase clinical and operational efficiencies, while improving the quality of care. The bottom line: With growing healthcare demands requiring increased efficiencies across the board, using Intralign SFAs enables me to accomplish more than I could on my own.” –Dr. Eugene Murphy

Link to complete case study: http://www.intralign.com/library/case-studies

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Link to blog: http://www.intralign.com/first-post/ 10