Location in SystemView: SystemView > Explore > Surgery > Theatre Effectiveness > Utilisation → Session Details button
In this article:
What it is
The Session Details table gives you a full list of all theatre sessions that occurred during your selected time period.
It shows how each session was planned versus how it actually ran — including when it started and finished, who the consultant was, and how many minutes were used, unused, or delayed.
This table is ideal when you want to:
- Validate utilisation data against theatre records.
- Identify causes of unused minutes or overruns.
- Review performance trends across days, consultants, or session types.
- Export data for deeper Excel analysis and reporting.
💡 Tip: Export the table to Excel to combine and group minutes by day, surgeon, or specialty to uncover trends in unused time or late starts. See How to export from SystemView › for instructions.
Understanding the columns
Each row in the table represents one theatre session.
The key columns are grouped below to help you interpret what you’re seeing.
Session details
| Column | What it shows |
| Theatre | The theatre where the session took place. |
| Date / Day | When the session occured |
| Session | Indicates whether it was a AM, PM or All Day session. |
| Start / Finish | Planned start and finish times of the session. |
| Scheduled (Sch) Minutes | Total minutes allocated to the session |
| Consultant / Specialty | The doctor and specialty assigned to that session. |
| Session Type | Indicates whether the session was Elective or Emergency. |
Operation metrics
| Column | What it shows |
| No. of Elective Ops | Total planned elective operations (includes cancellations). |
| No. of Emergency Ops | Total emergency or unplanned operations performed. |
| No. of Cancelled Ops | Count of cancelled elective operations. |
| No. of Delays / Delay Minutes | Number and duration of delays recorded within the session |
Time metrics
| Column | What it shows | How it's calculated |
| Used minutes | Times patients were in theatre (‘wheels in’ → ‘wheels out’). | Only counts minutes within scheduled list time; exlcudes early starts and overruns. |
| Unused minutes | Theatre time that went unused within the session. | Time lost to late starts and early finishes. |
| Late Start Minutes | How long after the planned start the first patient entered theatre. | Calculated from theatre list planned start to first patient 'wheels in'. |
| Early Finish Minutes | How early the session finished before the scheduled end. | Time between last patients 'wheels out' and planned finish. |
| In Session Changeover Minutes | Time spent between operations within the same session. | Sum of all changeovers (excludes the last case). |
| Total Overrun | Minutes the list exceeded its planned finish time. | TIme after scheduled finish until last 'wheels out'. |
| Total Early Starts | Minutes before the planned start time when the first case began. | Time before scheduled session commencement. |
Utilisation metrics
Why it matters
Every minute in this table tells part of the utilisation story.
By combining these columns, you can quickly identify whether under-utilisation was caused by late starts, early finishes, cancellations, or low case volume — helping you make data-driven improvements to theatre scheduling and resource use.
Tips for success
- Export regularly: Run a regular export to analyse further and spot recurring patterns by day or specialty.
- Check extremes: Large unused or overrun times can indicate scheduling or staffing issues.
- Cross-reference: Use alongside Late Starts, Early Finishes, and Elective Schedule Monitor components for a complete efficiency picture.
- Validate anomalies: Compare against local theatre management records to confirm accuracy.
👉To learn how this table fits into the broader utilisation analysis, see the Theatre Effectiveness > Utilisation › article.