What makes a theatre list reliable?
A reliable theatre list is not simply full. It is deliverable under uncertainty, matched to constraints and aligned with system capacity.
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- Mondrian Health editorial
- Published
List reliability is the probability that a planned theatre session can be delivered as intended without cancellations, significant overruns or downstream disruption. Reliability is shaped before the day of surgery, in how the list is designed.
Design factors that influence reliability
Case duration variability, sequencing, equipment and staff dependencies, expected length of stay, and bed availability all contribute to whether a list is realistically deliverable.
Lists that ignore these constraints can appear well-utilised in advance but routinely fail to finish on time, generating cancellation pressure and overtime.
Designing for deliverability
Design choices that improve reliability include realistic case-duration assumptions, deliberate sequencing, sensible buffers for variability, and explicit consideration of post-operative bed and recovery flow.
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Apply this thinking to your own theatre, access or estimation work.
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