Google Calendar can be used as an enterprise mobility solution for operating theatre (OT) scheduling in hospitals with low resources. It allows surgeons to easily book surgery slots, and OT managers and anesthetists to access and update schedules in real-time from any device. Compared to paper-based scheduling, Google Calendar streamlines the complex OT scheduling process without requiring training or expensive software. A study is recommended to analyze time and effort saved through its use.

1. OT Scheduling through Google Calendar
[Enterprise-wide Mobility Solution]
Presented By:
Deepti Taiwade, Shivani Singh & Bipin Rathore
(Postgraduate Health IT Students, IIHMR,New Delhi)
Guided By:
Dr. Anandhi Ramachandran
(Proff, IIHMR, New Delhi)
Abstract:
Managing Operation Theatre (OT) is a complex process where numerous resources must be
synchronized in order to achieve efficiency. Surgeon availability, operating team scheduling,
patient related information, equipment, and support must all be carefully orchestrated. OT
scheduling plays a vital role to utilize the resources & time in efficient manner. Scheduling on
paper is cumbersome, require effort & time from multiple stakeholder to coordinate scheduling
of operation theatre. Even commercially available Scheduling Softwares are expensive & require
training to use them. Google Calendar is web-based freely available product can be easily
accessible used to solve complexity of OT Scheduling. Google Calendar can be accessed easily
from laptop, Smartphone, & can be used offline mode.
Keyword: Scheduling, Enterprise Mobility, Google Calendar
Introduction:
The operating theatre is one of the most expensive departments of any hospital. Its capacity often
limits the amount of routine surgical work that can be carried out. Surgeons & Anesthetists,
therefore have a responsibility to ensure that theatre facilities are used as fully as possible, and
also that good use is made of the operating time in the theatre. Routine operating lists are
planned in advance, so each surgical team should be able to ensure that its share of theatre time
is used as fully as possible, without being exceeded more often than necessary. Operating Room
efficiency depends on Operating Room scheduling. Operating room planning is a complex task
where numerous resources must be synchronized in order to achieve efficiency. It includes;

3. Managing such complex process of OT Scheduling on paper is a cumbersome job which
involves lots of complexity. Even the commercially available solutions are very expensive &
require training also, so to address these issues we are proposing concept of "Google Calendar"
which is freely available web-based solution, can be easily accessible & does not require training
also. Google Calendar is a free time-management web application offered by Google. It became
available on April 13, 2006, and exited the beta stage in July 2009. Users are required to have
a Google Account in order to use the software.
Methodology:
Initial stakeholder meeting with OT Nurse In charge, Anesthetist & Surgeons to determine the
current workflow & scheduling routines. These activities assessed through effort & time matrix.
We also determine the IT infrastructure & Smartphone with net connection available with all
team members.
We collect the data for number of Operation Theatre, Number of Operations / Operation Theatre
/ Day, Number of Surgeon, Number of Anesthetist. We also need to determine off hours & days
as per hospital policy.
Theatre-wise Google ID will be created (eg. orthoot1@gmail.com.) & given to the surgeon &
Anesthetist who utilize that particular OT, so on Google Id can be created for the different OTs.
According to the Theatre Policy, surgeon can book his surgery slots 24-72 hours prior. This slot
booking recorded in Google Calendar under given Operation Theatre Id. After that OT in-charge
& anesthetist can access the detail of the slot booking & make necessary update & changes.
EXISTING WORKFLOW IN INDIAN SCENARIO:
 Surgeon prepare the operation list
 Prepare the OT list for next day with detail to TNM and anaesthetist
 Fax or physical copy to TNM and anaesthetist
 Surgeon to verify slot and anaesthetist availability & both confirm the details
 Requested Slot booked

4. PROPOSED ENTERPRISE MOBILITY SOLUTION : GOOGLE CALENDEAR
Surgeon need to have gmail user-ID Will select Google Calendar from
Google Homepage
Event can be seen by Guests added
Confirmation
SMS get
generated&
sentto Surgeon
NeedstoLogin
for particularOT
Willbookhisslot
&createevent
Anesthetisttoverify
hisavailabilty
Theatre Nurse
Manager finalize
the slot
Operation
Theatre
Scheduling
through
Google Calendar

5. EXISTING WORKFLOW
S.NO EXISTING WORKFLOW GOOGLE CALENDAR
WORKFLOW
COMMENT
1. Surgeon prepare the operation list on
Paper.
Login & select date & time
slot & create the event
2. Prepare the OT list for next day with
detail to TNM and anaesthetist.
Detail of Operation &
Requirement
Real-time Update
3. Fax or physical copy to TNM and
anaesthetist
Real-time update in Google
Calendar
Immediate access by
TNM & Anesthetist
4. Surgeon to verify slot and anaesthetist
availability with both & confirm
details
Can be verified online in
Laptop/Smartphone & SMS
generation.
5. Slots booked on Paper remain in
Theatre.
Electronic record on web-
based Calendar can be
accessed from anywhere
Easy accessibility

8. Interface:
The interface of Google Calendar, designed by Kevin Fox (who also designed Gmail and the
second version of Google Reader[2]), is similar to desktop calendar applications such
as Microsoft Outlook or iCal on Mac OS X. The Ajax-driven interface enables users to view,
add, and drag-and-drop events from one date to another without reloading the page. It supports
view modes such as weekly, monthly, and agenda. Users can "quick add" calendar events by
typing Standard English phrases, such as "Operation scheduled 7 p.m. tomorrow". Users can also
set the number of days to show in their custom view mode.
Content access:
Events are stored online; consequently, the calendar can be viewed from any location that has
Internet access. For users who might experience a hard drive failure, it also means that no data is
lost. The application can import Microsoft Outlook calendar files (.csv) and iCalendar files (.ics,
the de facto open calendaring file format). Multiple calendars can be added and shared, allowing
various levels of permissions for the users. This enables collaboration and sharing of schedules
amongst groups. General calendars available for importing into one's account include those
containing national holidays of various countries. Users can also add "live" iCalendar URLs that
update regularly.
Google Calendar screenshot
Developer(s) Google
Initial release April 13, 2006
Written in Java[1]
Operating system Server: Linux
Client: any Web brow ser
Platform Java Virtual Machine
Type Electronic calendar

9. Sharing calendars:
Google Calendar allows multiple calendars to be created and shown in the same view. Each can
be shared, either read-only or with full edit control, and either with specified people or with
everyone (public calendars). In February 2009, Google discontinued the option of searching for
public calendars from the search field by removing the "Search Public Events" button. It also
disabled its public calendar gallery, citing maintenance and usability issues. The company
suggests adding calendars via the "Interesting Calendars" feature, known calendar URLs, or via
email requests to friends. Daily "To Do" tasks cannot currently be shared between users.
Device synchronization:
Currently, Google Calendar can use Google Sync to synchronize with many mobile devices
(e.g., BlackBerry, Palm, iPhone, Pocket PC) or with PC applications (e.g., Microsoft Outlook)
via third party software, and natively with Apple's iCal (workarounds required for iCal 3.x, full
functionality with iCal 4.x).[5] Google Calendar is natively supported on Android-based mobile
phones . Event reminders can be sent via email, as well as via SMS to mobile phones in more
than eighty countries and regions.
Google integration:
Google Calendar is integrated with various other Google services:
 Gmail, Google's webmail service. When an e-mail that contains trigger words (such as
"meeting", or dates and times) arrives, an "add to calendar" button is automatically displayed
alongside it.
 iGoogle, the user-designed Google homepage, in which users can choose and organize
content in the form of "gadgets". The calendar is shown as a module on your homepage. This
"gadget" offers options to edit how the time is displayed, which day the week starts on, and a
link to "Add Event".
 Google Desktop, Google's desktop search software for Windows or Mac OS X. The mini-
calendar gadget allows you view your agenda without having to open your browser. You can
place it on your desktop or leave it docked in the sidebar.
2009 introduction
On March 4, 2009, Google Calendar began offering offline support. On May 13, 2009, Google
Calendar began offering to-do lists, via Google Tasks.

10. Discussion:
Compatibility:
Because Google Calendar is a web-based application, it is accessible from virtually
any operating system, provided that the OS has a browser which supports the required web
technologies. Since it uses recent browser features, browser compatibility
includes Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8; Mozilla Firefox 2.0+; Opera 9.5; Google
Chrome; and Safari 2.0.3.
Google Calendar supports exporting calendar data through a permanent HTTP URL
containing iCalendar data, either at a public or "private" (hard to guess) address. This bears
resemblance to theWebcal "protocol". Public calendars were searchable until February 2009. The
data can be integrated with, among many others, Novell Evolution,[10] and Windows
Calendar inWindows Vista (using the subscribe feature). The web link for the location of the
calendar can be found in Google Calendar Settings in the Private Address section.
Google Calendar also supports CalDAV using iCal 3.x. Google announced in March 2013 that
CalDAV would be limited to "whitelisted" developers only, and other developers would be
limited in the future to Google Calendar API.
Consistency and reliability:
As in other cloud computing applications, changes to Google Calendar are immediately visible to
all users. This allows new features to be added without user action, but also makes it possible for
new bugs to be rolled out to the entire user population, without users being able to refuse the
update. On March 18, 2010, an update to add the Smart Rescheduler feature caused problems
such as automatic invitations to nonexistent users being generated for events that were edited in
secondary calendars. Despite negative user feedback, Google chose not to roll back the update,
concentrating instead on providing a fix. According to user reports, the fix took effect five days
later, on March 23, 2010.
Other criticisms:
Many users of Google Calendar criticized the inability for time zones to be handled correctly in
the application, as well as Google's unwillingness to resolve the issue. Until December 2010,
there was no way to associate a time zone with the start/end times of a particular event. Because
of this, users experienced problems when attempting to schedule events outside of their current
time zone. In early December 2010, Google implemented a partial fix, allowing events to be
associated with time zones, but it remained unable to display events each in their own time zone,
like a travel itinerary does.
Google Calendar does not support "tentative" dates and times for events, which may cause
synchronization problems with Microsoft Outlook.
Month view is designed to fit on a single printed page. The downside to this is that it lacks text
wrapping to see the full appointment title. Many users have complained about this. A
workaround is to use another application to convert Google Calendar data to a format with full
support for text wrapping.

11. Recommendation:
 Google Calendar can be used as Enterprise Mobility Solution in low resources Indian
Hospitals.
 Calendar customization & implementation to be done by IT Department or Surgical
Department for effectiveness.
 Standard use model can be created to implement in various types of hospitals.
 Furthur study till we conducted on time & effort saved by using Google Calendar.
Conclusion:
Google calendar makes OT Scheduling easy, efficient, economic & real-time to coordinate
Operation Theatre booking & slot availability. Busy & complex operation theatre scheduling can
be streamlined through free web – based, easy to use Google calendar. Through this, money &
time can be saved as well as it requires no training to use Google Calendar.
References:
1. MICHAEL B ROSE MChir FRCS, Consultant Urologist, Morriston Hospital, Swansea;
DAVID C DAVIES, BSc FBIM Senior Lecturer, West Glamorgan Institute of Higher
Education, Scheduling in the operating theatre, Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons
of England (1984) vol. 66.
2. Improve Operating Room Efficiency with Operating Room Scheduling Management
http://www.surgerymanagement.com/services/scheduling.php
3. Google Calendar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Calendar