Location in SystemView: SystemView > Explore > Surgery > Chronological Management > Booking Auditor
In this article:
What it is
The Booking Auditor provides visibility into patients booked out of chronological order and highlights opportunities to reschedule cases to optimise fairness and session efficiency in elective surgery. The component aggregates potential out-of-turn bookings across your hospital or specialty, then lets you explore these at doctor and patient level to support better chronological management.
Why it matters
Make sure every patient is treated in order — and every theatre session counts.
- See which patients have been booked out of turn.
- Quantify the number of sessions that could be saved by re-ordering bookings.
- Identify patients at risk of breaching their clinically recommended timeframe.
- Support surgeons and booking teams to plan more equitable and efficient theatre schedules.
How to use it
Filter to focus your view
Use the filter bar to refine results by:
- Specialty: Focus the analysis on a specific specialty.
- Doctor: Drill down to see each consultant’s bookings.
Explore chronological management insights
At the top of the component, charts summarise the number of operating theatre sessions currently booked out of turn for category 2 and 3 patients.
The total “session time” of these bookings (calculated in four-hour blocks) is shown as potential session savings. Selecting a specialty updates the charts to show each doctor’s sessions and patients who could potentially be rebooked.
Use the Sessions / Patients toggle to switch perspectives:
- Sessions view: Shows the total estimated procedure time for patients booked out of turn, grouped into four-hour blocks, to visualise the impact on theatre scheduling.
- Patients view: Displays the individual patients booked out of turn alongside unbooked patients who are at risk of missing their treat-by date.
These two views work together to help you understand both the operational impact on theatre time and which patients may need rescheduling.
Explore patient-level insights
When filtered to a doctor, scroll down to see two patient tables:
- Booked operations: lists patients already scheduled for surgery, ranked by their category and treat-by date (Wait List Order).
- Unbooked patients: shows who’s still waiting and where they sit chronologically.
Selecting a procedure code filters both lists to that operation type. This makes it easy to compare who’s been booked versus who’s still unbooked — useful for spotting patients who may need to be prioritised or rescheduled.
This is handy to use as a potential bookings list to review with consultants, ensuring surgery order matches clinical priority. You can also export the tables to Excel for team discussions or planning sessions — see How to export in SystemView for step-by-step instructions.
How it works
Booking Auditor analyses patients’ treat-by dates, specialty, doctor, and category to create a chronological ranking order. It then checks whether booked surgeries align with this order.
If a lower-priority (later treat-by date) patient is scheduled before someone higher in the ranking, the booking is flagged as out of turn.
Calculation logic
- Session savings: Sum of total procedure time for out-of-turn bookings, converted into 4-hour session blocks (240 minutes).
- Chronological ranking (Wait List Order): Determined by category and treat-by date relative to other patients under the same doctor and specialty.
How it helps you
- Optimise theatre scheduling: Visualise the total session time affected by out-of-turn bookings.
- Promote equitable patient management: Ensure patients are treated in order of clinical urgency.
- Prevent breaches: Identify unbooked patients approaching their treat-by date.
- Support planning discussions: Provide surgeons and booking teams with exportable patient lists for potential rescheduling.
- Improve data transparency: Align clinical priorities with operational performance.
Best practices
How often should I use it
| What to do | How often | Who should do it | Why it helps |
| Review chronological management trends | Weekly | Theatre Managers, Surgical Booking Officer | Keeps bookings aligned with clinically recommended order |
| Review patient tables for potential rescheduling | Weekly | Theatre & Specialty Coordinators, Surgeons | Supports collaborative scheduling discussions |
| Switch between Sessions and Patients views | During planning sessions | Booking Teams, Surgery Managers | Provides both operational and patient-level context |
Pair with these components
- Chronological Management > Booked in Turn
Check overall trends in out-of-turn bookings to spot where chronological order is breaking down. - Chronological Management > Recent Bookings Auditor
Review recent bookings to confirm chronological order is being maintained. - Waiting List > Risks & Projections
Identify unbooked patients nearing their treat-by date to prioritise for scheduling. - Elective Schedule Monitor
Find available theatre sessions to rebook patients identified in the Booking Auditor.
Tips for success
- Review both booked and unbooked patient tables after filtering by doctor or procedure code for the clearest comparison.
- Tip: Use the Patients view when discussing individual patient order; switch to Sessions view for theatre capacity planning.
- Keep your filters consistent with specialty-level reviews to ensure alignment between doctors.
- Revisit the component regularly as bookings and treat-by dates update daily.
Want a detailed breakdown?
If you’d like a more detailed look at every filter, chart, and tile in this component, you can download the Booking Auditor Guide below.
📎 Download: Chronological Management > Booking Auditor Guide
❔FAQs
Q. Why are some patients shown as out of turn?
A. Because their surgery date is earlier than another patient with an earlier treat-by date in the same specialty and category.
Q. What is a session?
A. A 4-hour (240-minute) block of operating theatre time.