A unique surgical partnership: the valuable role of the Surgical First Assistant

1. June 4, 2015
A unique surgical partnership:
the valuable role of the Surgical
First Assistant
Case Study: Dr. Eugene Murphy

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

3. 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.

4. 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.
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5. 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.

6. 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
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1.5
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2.5
Average Surgery Time Per Case
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

7. 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.

8. Procedure lengths
By 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

9. 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
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10. Link to complete case study:
http://www.intralign.com/library
/case-studies/
Link to blog:
http://www.intralign.com/first-
post/
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