Table 1. Anesthesiologists giving 30-minute breaks during the 1.5-hour lunchtime period.
aThe sample sizes refer to the numbers of calculated 5% lower prediction limits of surgical procedure times. This was slightly less than the number of cases [1].
bColumn entries are percentage (%) chances of being able to give one break among the rooms, between 15 minutes after the start of surgical procedure(s) and the end of the surgical procedure(s), along with 99% lower and upper confidence intervals [1].
cThe “best chance” means the case is paired with the adjacent room giving the largest amount of overlapping time. The “least chance” means the other room. These columns with two rooms can be applied in the United States as breaks for trainees. All columns are predicated on there being another anesthesiologist available as a backup if the anesthesiologist is alone, giving a lunch break.
dThe timing “throughout the workday” refers to that appropriate for a breast milk pumping session [1] because women a few months after giving birth would often need three sessions during a full (>10-hour) workday. These results were recalculated and correctly match those reported previously for breast milk pumping sessions [1], matching because both breaks are planned for 30 minutes.
eThese two values being the same is not a mistake, it just happened to be so.
| Location | Sample sizea | Single casesb | Two rooms, best chanceb,c | Two rooms, least chanceb,c | Three roomsb |
| Ambulatory surgery center, adult, throughout the workdayd | 7,987 | 18.0 (16.9, 19.1) | 16.6 (15.5, 17.6) | 10.5 (9.6, 11.4) | 10.3 (9.4, 11.2) |
| Ambulatory surgery center, break starting 11:15 to 12:45 | 1,459 | 17.3 (14.9, 20.0) | 16.4 (14.0, 19.1) | 10.9e (8.9, 13.2) | 10.9e (8.9, 13.2) |
| Children’s hospital, throughout the workdayd | 4,872 | 20.7 (19.2, 22.2) | 19.1 (17.6, 20.6) | 13.1 (11.9, 14.4) | 12.7 (11.5, 14.0) |
| Children’s hospital, break starting 11:15 to 12:45 | 670 | 18.5 (14.8, 22.7) | 17.8 (14.1, 21.9) | 12.2 (9.2, 15.8) | 11.6 (8.7, 15.2) |
| Adult inpatient surgical suite, throughout the workdayd | 17,498 | 54.2 (53.2, 55.2) | 51.5 (50.6, 52.5) | 36.1 (35.2, 37.1) | 31.4 (30.5, 32.3) |
| Adult surgical suite, break starting 11:15 to 12:45 | 1,979 | 50.9 (48.0, 53.8) | 50.1 (47.2, 53.0) | 36.6 (33.8, 39.4) | 34.7 (32.0, 37.5) |