Workflow time, waste and micro-costing dataset: applicator versus bulk-bottle alcoholic chlorhexidine for surgical skin antisepsis

Analysis dataset supporting a pilot observational study comparing two delivery formats for 2% alcoholic chlorhexidine in preoperative surgical skin antisepsis: a single-use applicator and a bulk-bottle protocol, with the antiseptic agent and the application technique held constant. Twenty elective abdominal general surgery procedures were observed in a single Spanish university hospital, 10 per arm.

Each row is one observed procedure. The dataset records workflow time for six predefined steps and for the aggregate phases, four measures of procedure-related waste, and the unit costs and cost components derived from those times.

The deposit contains the data in comma-separated and SPSS formats, a variable dictionary, the original SPSS syntax and, from version 2.0.0, a syntax addendum and a Python script. Together they reproduce Tables 3 to 7 of the revised article: descriptive statistics, exact Mann–Whitney U tests, stratified BCa and percentile bootstrap confidence intervals (10,000 resamples, Mersenne Twister seed 2,000,000), exact permutation tests on the difference in means, and the case-mix sensitivity analysis restricted to unilateral hernia repair.

The dataset contains no patient identifiers and no patient-level demographic or clinical data: the unit of observation is the procedure, not the patient. No dates are recorded at the procedure level. Total workflow time excludes the drying interval, which the protocol requires before draping but which was not timed. Version 2.0.0 adds the variables procedure_type, structural_steps_s and common_steps_s and stores the time-dependent costs unrounded; no observation was changed (see CHANGELOG_R1.md).