<![CDATA[Background: The operating room is a critical hospital service unit that requires optimal management of time and resources. One of the problems encountered in operating room services is elective surgery delay. Before the implementation of block scheduling, the elective surgery delay rate at the Operating Room of Mayapada Hospital Tangerang remained above the quality target of ≤5%. Block scheduling is a scheduling method that allocates operating room time into specific blocks for surgeons or service groups to improve scheduling organization and team coordination. Objective: This study aimed to determine the effect of implementing block scheduling on reducing the rate of elective surgery delays in the Operating Room of Mayapada Hospital Tangerang in 2026. Methods: This quantitative study used a pre-experimental design comparing elective surgery delays before and after the implementation of block scheduling. Secondary data were obtained from operating room reports. Total sampling was used, including all elective surgeries in January 2026 as the pre-intervention period and March 2026 as the post-intervention period. There were 320 elective surgeries in January and 290 in March. Surgery delay was defined as surgery starting more than one hour after the scheduled time. Descriptive and bivariate analyses were performed using the Chi-Square test. Results: In January 2026, 57 of 320 elective surgeries experienced delays of more than one hour, representing 17.81%. In March 2026, 11 of 290 elective surgeries experienced delays, representing 3.79%. The delay rate decreased by 14.02 percentage points or 78.71% relatively. The Chi-Square test showed χ² = 30.188 with p-value <0.001. Conclusion: There was a statistically significant difference in the proportion of elective surgery delays before and after implementation of block scheduling. Implementation of block scheduling was associated with a substantial reduction in elective surgery delays and achievement of the ≤5% quality target.]]>
