Case Study: Rush University Medical Center achieves increased OR utilization and improved surgeon access with LeanTaaS iQueue for Operating Rooms

Rush University Medical Center Increased Room Utilization by 3%

Rush University Medical Center, a nationally ranked hospital in downtown Chicago that performs over 44,000 surgeries a year across 38 ORs, struggled with a completely blocked schedule, short auto-release times, and departments hoarding blocks—making it difficult to recruit surgeons and clear a backlog following the COVID‑19 surge. To address this, Rush partnered with LeanTaaS and implemented iQueue for Operating Rooms, including the iQueue Exchange module, to surface utilization data and enable more flexible scheduling.

LeanTaaS’s iQueue provided a single source of truth and an OpenTable‑like Exchange for surgeons to reserve and release time, which fostered fact‑based discussions and greater trust in scheduling. After about a year, Rush reported a 3% increase in overall room utilization, a 30% increase in OR minutes for top requesters, a 16% decrease in abandoned block time, and release lead times extending up to three weeks—allowing more cases during preferred hours and reducing urgent/after‑hours cases.

Rush University Medical Center