“Using Social Network Analysis to Identify Sub-Groups in the Operating Room.”
By Tita A. Listyowardojo, Christian Steglich, Stephen Peuchen, and Addie Johnson, 2009.
In D. de Waard, J. Godthelp, F.L. Kooi, and K.A. Brookhuis (Eds.), Human Factors, Security and Safety, pp.391-400. Maastricht, The Netherlands: Shaker Publishing.

The frequency with which operating room (OR) staff work together can impact patient safety because staff who often work together share a set of experiences which may enable them to anticipate each other’s actions and reactions in the future. Identifying sub-groups of staff who frequently work together is thus a significant step in investigating team skills and the knowledge needed to prevent mishaps. Here, social network analysis (a set of statistical techniques for analyzing networks of interactions) is used to quantify the frequency with which individual OR staff members in a large university hospital worked together on three types of operation over a period of 2.6 years. Details of the specific techniques used are given. It is concluded that social network analysis is a viable method to identify sub-groups in the OR.