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.