Improving Patient Access Through Data Driven OR Operations

Summary

Podcast Summary: Improving Patient Access Through Data Driven OR Operations

Podcast: Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Episode: Improving Patient Access Through Data Driven OR Operations
Release Date: March 11, 2026
Host: Scott Becker
Guest: Megan Eubanks, Senior Director of Business Operations, Perioperative and Procedural Services, University of Kansas Health System

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Episode Overview

This episode features Scott Becker in conversation with Megan Eubanks from the University of Kansas Health System. The discussion centers on leveraging data and artificial intelligence to improve patient access and operational efficiency in surgical operations, especially in the context of evolving healthcare challenges. Megan shares practical insights on building resilient perioperative systems, the value of actionable data, and her experiences integrating AI tools with existing EHR infrastructure. The episode also touches briefly on Megan’s philanthropic efforts outside her professional role.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introduction to Megan Eubanks & the University of Kansas Health System

• Megan’s Role: Senior Director of Business Operations for perioperative and procedural services, overseeing seven surgical locations and 66 operating rooms performing over 40,000 surgeries annually ([00:37]).
• Focus Areas: Operations, access, strategy, and leadership in making patient care more accessible while supporting care-delivery teams.

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2. Building Operational Resilience in a Changing Healthcare Landscape

• Resilience is About Access: Megan positions resilience in the perioperative sphere primarily as maintaining and improving patient access, regardless of external constraints ([02:35]).
• Discovery from Data Analysis:
  • 100% of ORs were formally "blocked" for surgeons, but actual utilization was only 50-55%.
  • Late block releases (48-72 hours notice) limited flexibility for reassigning available OR time.

Quote:

“We found something interesting: on paper, 100% of our ORs were blocked...but when you actually dug into utilization, it was only about 50 to 55%.”
— Megan Eubanks [02:53]

• AI Partnership: Chose to partner with LeanTaaS to bridge the gap between data and operational decisions, improve patient access, and create a scalable, adaptable system ([03:44]).

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3. Moving Beyond Epic: The Case for Advanced Analytics

• Strengths and Limitations of Epic:
  • Epic provides comprehensive data, but extracting actionable intelligence requires cumbersome manual work ([04:53]).
• Need for Actionable Information:
  • Tools like LeanTaaS translate complex data into actionable signals and predictive analytics.
  • Surgeons and teams receive real-time alerts about their OR time utilization and opportunities for releasing or acquiring additional time.
  • Shifts from data visibility to operational change: “Visibility to data alone doesn’t change behavior. We’re a lean organization and believe in signals…” ([05:23]).

Quote:

“Tools like LeanTaaS help translate really complex data into information that can help provide operational guidance and serve as those signals.”
— Megan Eubanks [05:24]

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4. Levers That Drove Growth and Efficiency

• Transparency as a Lever:
  • Openly sharing data on block performance empowered individuals to govern themselves.
  • Early release and surfacing available OR time allowed for better reallocation and utilization.

Quote:

“The more that we were transparent with our data, the more that individuals started governing even themselves.”
— Megan Eubanks [07:20]

• Cultural Shift:
  • Surgeons and teams now proactively release and claim OR time, increasing engagement and operational efficiency.
• Results:
  • 3–8% year-over-year surgical volume growth.
  • Maintained prime-time utilization at 72–74%.
  • Release fill rate at 54%.
  • 23% year-over-year growth in demand for open time ([07:50]).

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5. Recommendations for Leaders: Embedding Governance and Simplicity

• Integrate Analytics into Policy & Process:
  • Governance structures incorporate the use of analytic tools directly into block/scheduling policies.
  • Consistent policy review with leadership and use of "opportunity analytics."
  • Policy requires using analytics tools for additional OR time requests ([09:24]).
• Cultural Integration:
  • Data-driven tools aren’t a “side product”—they’re embedded into daily workflows and decision-making.

Quote:

“It’s not just a side product, it’s part of our process and it’s built into our policy and built into our governance as well.”
— Megan Eubanks [10:04]

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6. Brief Personal Note: Philanthropy and the MS Ride

• Cycling & Community:
  • Megan co-chairs the Royal Blue Riders for the Kansas City bike MS charity event ([11:01]).
  • The cause is personally meaningful, as a family member was diagnosed with MS.
  • The team has grown to be a top fundraiser for MS research in the region.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Building Efficient OR Operations:
  “Our goal really wasn’t just efficiency...but helping to build a system that is scalable, that could flex and adapt to conditions when they change.”
  — Megan Eubanks [03:49]

• On Data Transparency:
  “Having that transparency around block performance and then what time is available in the OR has been extremely powerful for us.”
  — Megan Eubanks [07:22]

• On Culture and Policy:
  “You have to build governance into your processes...that way instead of it becoming a one-time initiative, it just becomes the way that we operate as part of our operating model.”
  — Megan Eubanks [09:30–10:04]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00–00:37 — Introduction of guest and her role
• 02:35–04:23 — Building resilience and data-driven journey
• 04:53–06:25 — Moving beyond Epic: actionable analytics
• 07:13–08:51 — Driving transparency, engagement, and OR efficiency
• 09:24–10:45 — Embedding governance and analytics into policy
• 11:01–11:57 — Philanthropy: Cycling and MS fundraising

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Tone & Language

• Conversational, practical, and focused on actionable advice.
• Emphasis on data-driven transformation, transparency, and collaborative leadership.
• Megan’s responses are patient-centered and operationally grounded, highlighting a culture of continuous improvement.

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Summary Takeaways

For healthcare leaders, this episode demonstrates how integrating advanced analytics into perioperative operations can significantly enhance efficiency, transparency, and access—especially in resource-constrained environments. Embedding these tools into governance and daily practice fosters a sustainable culture of improvement.

For listeners seeking to improve operational resilience in healthcare, Megan’s experience at the University of Kansas Health System offers a compelling case for leveraging both technology and culture change.

Transcript

[A]

This is Scott Becker with the Becker's Healthcare podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by a brilliant leader. We're joined today by a leader of the University of Kansas Health System. We're joined by Megan Eubanks. Megan serves as a Senior Director of Business operations, perioperative and procedural services. She's going to talk to us about a lot of the improvements the things are doing to improve efficiency and a lot more today. Megan, we are so thrilled to have you with us. Can you take a moment to introduce yourself and tell us about your role, your focus within perioperative operations and also a little bit about the University of Kansas Health System?

[B]

Sure, Scott. Thank you for having me. Like you mentioned, I serve as the Senior Director of Business Operations for perioptin Procedural Services at the University of Kansas Health System. On the surgical side of where I support, we support both surgical and procedural, but on the surgical side Specifically, I support seven surgical locations with about 66 operating rooms across the health system which collectively perform more than 40,000 surgeries a year and growing. My role sits at the intersection of operations, access and strategy. I spend most of my time working with physicians, nursing leaders, anesthesia and operational teams to figure out how we can use our OR capacity as effectively as possible. At the end of the day, my goal is pretty simple. It's to make it easier for patients to get the care they need while making sure the system works well for the teams delivering that care.

[A]

Thank you. And you've been at the University of Kansas now for almost 13, 14 years. Great leadership career there. Just remarkable. At some point we'll also talk to you about charity bike riding if I could motivate you to do so. But we'll first focus on healthcare and where we're at. But I know you also do great philanthropic work too. Talk a little bit about healthcare policy. Healthcare constantly is facing changes from sort of policy changes to workforce shortages to supply chain disruptions. Building operational resilience is top of mind for many leaders and we've seen such resilience over the last few years post Covid. Really amazing what the nation's healthcare systems have done to sort of get back at it and get hiring improved and producing great nurses and what we've done in terms of resilience. Talk about how you think about building resilience in the perioperative space and what made you turn to artificial intelligence in a partnership with Lintas in that regard. In terms of the perioperative space in using AI for efficiency.

[B]

When we talk about Resilience in our areas, it really comes down to access. So I think we've had to be more and more resilient over the last several years just due to some of the issues that have popped up in health care. Covid being one of those, which is when we started our journey with, with Lean Toss. But it's really making sure that, you know, no matter what what you face in the or, that patients can still get access to care even when we have constraints on our resources. So a few years ago when we started digging into our data, we found something interesting on paper. 100% of our ORs were blocked. They were allocated to surgical blocks. So it looked like the system was full, but when you actually dug into utilization, it was only about 50 to 55%. So surgeons had time, but patients were still struggling to get access. And we were struggling to allocate new block or new time whenever a surgeon started within our system. On top of that, we had block releases that are happening really late, so about 48 to 72 hours in advance, which means we didn't have a lot of flexibility for people to pick up time once it was made available. We have a lot of data in epic, but we didn't really have a way to translate that data into operational decisions. You know, I think data doesn't always equal information, but that's really what led us to partner with lean toss in 2021. Having access to AI and those advanced analytics really helped us match our surgical demand need for patient access with the available time that we had to use our resources more effectively. Our goal really wasn't just efficiency. I think that is a big goal, but it's really helping to build a system that, that is scalable, that could flex and adapt to conditions when they change.

[A]

Thank you. And talk for a second, Megan, about sort of. You mentioned EPIC for a moment, but talk about EPIC first. EPIC only versus using other solutions when they really make a difference for you in different areas. What's the difference that you have now into visibility and what's happening in terms of the ors and helping to make better day to day decisions in the or. And since you moved to the AI and wing toss approach versus being defaulting to EPIC only. Talk a bit about the difference that you see.

[B]

Sure. Epic, I think gives a lot of data. It makes a lot of data available to us. I think administratively. I do believe in building as much into one single platform as possible. But the challenge with EPIC is it is an overwhelming amount of clicks and work and data that is available And a lot of times teams have to pull multiple reports together and really do extra work to interpret what that means operationally. Visibility to data alone doesn't change behavior. We're a lean organization and believe in signals, and that's truly what teams need in order to determine what actions to take. I think that tools like Lean Toss help translate really complex data into information that can help provide operational guidance and serve as those signals. So we send alerts out to all of our surgeons on how they're performing. The predictive analytics show you your time in advance and whether or not it would typically be booked and invite you to release that time so another surgeon can pick it up. And so it really allows our surgeons and our operational leaders to quickly see how we're performing, identify where those opportunities are to pick up additional time, and then where we have unused capacity. So that allows our teams to take action quickly in real time, rather than spending time seeking out and digging through reports that they have to interpret themselves.

[A]

Thank you. And I think you mentioned that you're doing about 40,000 procedures or surgeries a year, which is obviously a massive number you've seen over the last few years. Increased volume, stronger primetime utilization, improved release fill, and in great growth in open time demand while running fewer ORs. What organizational matters levers matter the most. In trying to help you sustain that growth through staffing and resource constraints and challenges, staffing resources, you've done a remarkable job of making greater use of the operating rooms and using fewer operators, quite frankly, and increasing the number of procedures. That's an amazing throughput sort of evolution and testament to what you're doing. What levers have made the biggest difference, what's helped.

[B]

Thank you. One of the most important levers that I believe in is creating transparency. One of the things that we found that I thought was interesting, and I still find really interesting, is that the more that we were transparent with our data, the more that individuals started governing even themselves. Having that transparency around block performance and then what time is available in the OR has been extremely powerful for us. So that would be a first lever that I would always recommend. I think our surgeons have the opportunity now to see clearly how their blocks are performing, and it naturally encourages behaviors around blocks. So making sure that we're releasing time earlier, being able to surface available time earlier so that time doesn't go unused. And so it just creates a healthier system where release time can be picked up, especially for those surgeons. We're growing organizations, so those surgeons that have demand that may not have as much Time as they need in the OR. As a result, we've seen 3 to 8% year over year surgical volume growth. We're getting pretty busy. So some of our areas are close to capped at this point, but we're able to maintain our PrimeTime utilization around 72 to 74 across the board. We have some that are some areas that are trending well above that. And then our release fill rate is 54%, which means the ORs in the clinics, the surgeons and the teams in the clinics are actively paying attention to the time that comes available and taking advantage of that. Our engagement from our surgeons is strong. And so we've seen about a 23% year over year growth for demand for open time.

[A]

That's remarkable. It's literally remarkable what you've done. Talk a little bit about for leaders trying to build surgical operations that can withstand shocks, that could be resilient. Where should they start across their journey? And what's one early movement that helps to build momentum without adding a lot of complexity? Because that's really the goal is to add momentum, be resilient, withstand challenges and get the operating rooms humming, really to make sure things are busy and can keep, you know, mission without margin. And truly the case. What can leaders do?

[B]

You know, at the end of the day you have to build governance into your processes so you can implement something that works really well and let it slip if it, if it's not included in your policies. So for us, we built the use of all of our tools for IQ directly into all of our policies. So our block policy indicates that we use the data that is available, the insights that are available through IQ as part of our policy, which we're reviewing pretty consistently with our service line leadership and what I refer to as opportunity analytics. So really looking at, instead of having a heavy hand, really looking at it from a partnership perspective and identifying where those opportunities are that can surface for them to be able to make informed decisions from. And so we also have it built into our scheduling policy. So if you're requesting additional time in the or, you're required to use IQ to do that. So it's not just a side product, it's part of our process and it's built into our policy and it's built into our governance as well. And then that way instead of it becoming a one time initiative, it just becomes the way that we operate as part of our operating model. And that structure really keeps all of our decisions transparent based on data and that we're all speaking the same language across the surgeons the clinic, clinical leaders in the or, as well as administrators.

[A]

Really remarkable. Can I ask you one or two more questions if you're okay with it?

[B]

Sure.

[A]

Thank you. So you are leading this year. You're culturing this year the Ms. Ride for charity. Talk about your commitment to charitable efforts and why that's so important to you.

[B]

Yeah, of course. Well, I picked up cycling just by virtue of wanting to stay active and build a community here in Kansas City. Last year was the first year that we built a team, a very teeny, tiny team around bike Ms. And ended up joining a larger team that has been wildly successful called the Royal Blue Riders. And they've had many years of success. And so this year I've been granted the opportunity to co chair that group with a big group of people that ride. And I think they're the second highest revenue generator for Ms. Research in the Kansas City area. And it really is bred from the fact that we love to ride bikes and cycle as much as we can. And then also my partner's sister has been diagnosed for ms, so it's near and dear to our heart to raise money to support research in that area.

[A]

Well, it's fantastic what you do, both professionally and personally. Just fantastic. Megan, I love the story of how you're working with Link. Toss in the efficiency you're bringing to the ORs, the Resilience and the shock absorption. That helps. It's an amazing stat. Higher number of procedures, higher number of surgeries, using fewer operating rooms and getting more people into the prime time slots. It's really a remarkable story and effort. Congratulations, Megan. It's great to visit with you. We'd love to get you back on to talk leadership and some of your advice for leadership. Just a tremendous career and leadership career. Thank you so much for joining us today on the Becker's Healthcare podcast. Thank you very much.

[B]

Thank you, Scott.