Digital empowerment for refined surgical privileging management: a model construction and empirical study

Objective This study aims to develop a refined surgical privileging management model empowered by information technology. It empirically evaluates the model’s effectiveness in addressing traditional authorization challenges, such as lack of dynamic supervision, to enhance surgical safety management. Methods This research employed a retrospective quasi-experimental (pre-post) design. A total of 79 surgeons and 3,914 surgical cases from January 2022 to December 2023 were selected to compare the new model against the traditional system. An evaluation system comprising 12 indicators across four dimensions—surgeon qualifications, surgical practice, patient safety, and interdisciplinary collaboration—was established. An integrated informatization platform was developed with functions including data collection, dynamic evaluation, monitoring and early warning, and audit trail management. A comprehensive evaluation was conducted by comparing indicators across four quarters, including process efficiency, medical quality and safety, resource utilization, system performance, and user satisfaction. Results With continuous advances in medical technology and rapid expansion of hospital scale, the limitations of traditional extensive privileging models have become increasingly apparent. The information-empowered model constructed in this study significantly improved management efficiency, with authorization review time stabilized between 4.61 and 4.85 working days, and an information transfer completion rate reaching 95.87–96.91%. Medical quality indicators remained consistently excellent: surgical success rates ranged from 97.82 to 98.12%, complication rates from 0.16 to 0.21%, and the unplanned reoperation rate was 1.03%. The 30-day readmission rate decreased from 1.89 to 1.21%. Resource utilization metrics remained efficient, with operating room turnover rates between 84.12 and 86.58%. System user satisfaction scores reached 4.12 to 4.26 points. Conclusion The refined surgical privileging management model based on information empowerment effectively enhances authorization efficiency, ensures patient safety, and optimizes resource allocation. It facilitates a shift from experience-based management to data-driven refinement and intelligence, demonstrating significant value for broader implementation.