Surgical Directions

• Increase surgical access and case volume
• Improve OR efficiency and patient throughput
• Strengthen anesthesiology and procedural services
• Enhance quality, safety and patient experience
• Improve overall financial, organizational and operational performance

Core Service Areas

Surgical Directions offers a broad set of consulting services designed to improve perioperative and procedural care end to end:

• Perioperative optimization – Process improvement, governance and best practices to improve OR utilization, on-time starts, patient flow and access to surgical services.
• Anesthesiology solutions – Support to stabilize and strengthen anesthesia services and partnerships, align incentives, and improve coverage and performance.
• Sterile processing optimization – Consulting to improve sterile processing department (SPD) operations, quality, readiness and alignment with surgical needs.
• Supply chain and materials management – Support to optimize perioperative supply chain processes and materials management for cost, availability and efficiency.
• Radiology solutions – Process and operational improvement for radiology services that interact with perioperative and procedural care.
• Workforce solutions – Strategies and interim leadership to address staffing shortages, leadership gaps and perioperative cultural challenges.
• Predictive analytics – Merlin™ – An AI‑powered analytics platform that provides actionable OR and procedural data to support better operational decisions.

Approach

Surgical Directions uses a clinician-driven consulting model:

• Physician and nurse consultants work alongside strategy and analytics experts.
• Peer-to-peer engagement with client physicians, nurses and business leaders helps build credibility and break down silos.
• The focus is on standardized metrics, governance structures and practices that enable sustainable improvement.

By improving OR and procedural performance, Surgical Directions aims to support healthier hospitals and health systems and better patient care, while delivering measurable financial results.

Address Surgical Directions 180 N. Stetson Ave., Suite 1610 Chicago, IL 60601 United States

Phone

• Main: (312) 870-5600
• Additional: (312) 870-5601

Email

• General inquiries: info@surgicaldirections.com

Social channels

• LinkedIn: Surgical Directions
• YouTube: Surgical Directions

Note: Office hours are not listed on the website. Call or use the contact forms to coordinate meeting times.

Ways to Engage

Organizations typically start a conversation with Surgical Directions by:

• Requesting a consultation – Forms on the website allow hospitals, health systems and ASCs to request a consultation about perioperative, anesthesia, workforce or analytics needs.
• Scheduling a Merlin™ demo – A dedicated form is available for organizations interested in learning more about the Merlin predictive analytics platform.
• Scheduling a workforce solutions consultation – A form under Workforce Solutions allows clients to request a consultation focused on staffing, leadership and culture.
• Submitting an RFP – A "Submit an RFP" page allows organizations to upload a request for proposal (RFP) for review.

Typical Clients

According to the website, Surgical Directions primarily works with:

• Hospitals
• Health systems
• Ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs)

Clients are usually seeking support to improve perioperative, procedural and anesthesia performance, strengthen workforce and leadership, and make better use of data and analytics in the operating room.

Merlin helps healthcare organizations use their OR and procedural data to:

• Make better operational decisions
• Optimize efficiency and patient flow
• Improve access to surgical and procedural care
• Support financial performance improvements tied to perioperative services

Key Capabilities

Based on the descriptions on the Surgical Directions website, Merlin can support:

• Block scheduling analytics – Insights to help optimize block allocation and utilization.
• Heatmapping – Visualizations of volume, capacity and throughput patterns in perioperative and procedural areas.
• Patient throughput analytics – Data to understand and improve patient flow across the perioperative continuum.
• Surgeon and service line views – Scorecards and dashboards that help leaders and clinicians understand performance and opportunities.

Merlin is positioned as a complement to, not a replacement for, the electronic medical record (EMR). It focuses on creating accountability, managing change and supporting business decisions through actionable and visual data analytics.

How Merlin Fits into Consulting Engagements

Merlin is typically used alongside Surgical Directions' clinician-led consulting services to:

• Provide data-driven insights during assessments and implementation
• Track progress and performance over time
• Support governance and decision-making in perioperative and procedural areas

Organizations interested in Merlin can request more information or a demo through Surgical Directions' website.

• Ongoing staffing shortages
• Increasing demand for surgical and procedural services
• Challenges with recruitment, retention and culture in perioperative areas

Key Workforce Services

Surgical Directions supports clients with:

• Workforce management strategies – Plans to align staffing models with surgical and procedural demand.
• Interim clinical leadership – Placement of experienced leaders to fill short-term gaps and drive change from within, including:
• Physician leadership staffing (including anesthesiologists and other physician leaders)
• Nurse leadership staffing
• Sterile Processing Department (SPD) leadership staffing
• Staff development and training – Coaching, mentoring and training for physicians, nurses, SPD staff and other leaders.
• Recruitment and retention planning – Guidance on strategies to attract and retain clinical staff, including culture, scheduling, safety, training and other factors that influence staffing stability.
• Perioperative cultural transformation – Support to build more cohesive, accountable and effective perioperative cultures where clinicians are more likely to stay and thrive.

Approach to Long-Term Success

Surgical Directions consultants work alongside client leadership and surgical teams to:

• Stand up sustainable governance boards and streamlined processes
• Engage peers across clinical, operational and analytics functions
• Identify issues that impede progress and design plans for improvement

The peer-to-peer model means:

• Surgical Directions physicians collaborate directly with client physicians.
• Surgical Directions nurses work with client nursing teams.
• Business and analytics experts partner with client business and analytics teams.

This structure is intended to accelerate trust, support cultural change and enable implementation of sustainable workforce and leadership solutions.

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