Skip to content
Curious Context Labs

Healthcare · Custom app

Theatre list scheduling

AI operating theatre list scheduling for hospitals

Theatre lists are built from waiting lists with realistic case durations, so fewer lists overrun or finish early, and gaps from cancellations are refilled.

01 today

The problem

Lists are planned with average or guessed case times, so some overrun and get cancelled while others finish early. Late cancellations leave empty slots that are hard to refill at short notice. Waiting lists grow while theatre time goes unused.

02 the run

What the AI does

  1. Step 1: Reads the waiting list, surgeon availability, theatre sessions and equipment from your theatre system.
  2. Step 2: Estimates each case's duration from that surgeon's past times for similar procedures.
  3. Step 3: Proposes lists that fit the session, respect clinical priority and keep equipment and staffing in mind.
  4. Step 4: Spots likely late cancellations, such as incomplete pre-operative checks, and suggests standby patients who are ready.
  5. Step 5: Reports overruns, early finishes and late starts by specialty each week.

paused: waiting for a person to approve

03 human in the loop

Where a person approves

Surgeons and schedulers approve every list. Clinical priority is set by the surgical team, and the tool never removes a patient from a list.

04 after

What changes

More of each session is used for operating, fewer patients are cancelled on the day, and waiting lists move faster.

Case studyFuller theatre lists with fewer on-the-day cancellationsThe rollout, what to measure, a worked example and the research behind it.

see also

All healthcare use cases ->
  • Healthcare

    Ambient clinical notes

    With the patient's consent, the consultation is turned into a draft note in your template, which the clinician checks, edits and signs in the record.

    Custom app
  • Healthcare

    Discharge summaries drafted from the record

    A first draft of the discharge summary is assembled from the stay's notes, results and medication changes, ready for the treating doctor to check and sign.

    Agent
  • Healthcare

    Clinical coding support

    Coders get a ranked list of candidate codes with the supporting text from the record, looked up in the official code sets, for them to accept or change.

    Custom app

Tell us how your business runs. We'll tell you where AI fits.

A free 30-minute call. You talk, we ask questions, and you leave with a few concrete ideas — or an honest answer that AI isn't the right fix yet.

Working with teams around the world.