OBJECTIVES: To investigate the impact of standardisation of the perioperative protocol based on the Joint Commission International (JCI) accreditation guidelines for operating time in cataract surgery.

DESIGN: Retrospective observational study.

SETTING: Single centre in Japan.

PARTICIPANTS: Between March 2014 and June 2016, 3127 patients underwent cataract surgery under topical anaesthesia including 2581 and 546 patients before and after JCI accreditation, respectively.

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOMES: We compared three time periods, comprising the preprocedure/surgery time (pre-PT), PT and post-PT, and total PT (TPT) of cataract surgery between patients before and after JCI accreditation, by regression analysis adjusted for age, sex and cataract surgery-associated confounders.

RESULTS: The main outcomes were pre-PT, PT, post-PT and TPT. Pre-PT (19.8+/-10.5 vs 13.9+/-8.5 min, p < 0.001) and post-PT (3.5+/-4.6 vs 2.6+/-2.1 min, p < 0.001) significantly decreased after JCI accreditation, while PT did not significantly change (16.8+/-6.7 vs 16.2+/-6.3 min, p=0.065). Consequently, TPT decreased on average by 7.3 min per person after JCI accreditation (40.1+/-13.4 vs 32.8+/-10.9 min, p < 0.001). After adjusting for confounders, pre-PT (beta=-5.82 min, 95% CI -6.75 to -4.88), PT (beta=-0.76 min, 95% CI -1.34 to -1.71), post-PT (beta=-0.85 min, 95% CI -1.24 to -0.45) and TPT (beta=-7.43 min, 95% CI -8.61 to -6.24) were significantly shortened after JCI accreditation.

CONCLUSION: Perioperative protocol standardisation, based on JCI accreditation, shortened TPT in cataract surgery under local anaesthesia.