Impact of the Federated Data Platform's digital surgery scheduling system on elective theatre utilisation at an NHS...

To evaluate the National Health Service (NHS) Federated Data Platform (FDP) Inpatient (IP) Care Coordination Solution (CCS) digital scheduling tool on elective theatre utilisation.

An interrupted time series assessed changes in theatre utilisation and cancellations following tool adoption (January 2022). Weekly data spanned 90 weeks (April 2021-December 2023). Outcomes included weekly median theatre utilisation (actual, booked and bookings per session) and the percentage of cancelled bookings. Models incorporated a 5-week lag and estimated level (step-change) and trend (slope) effects.

Postintervention level and trend increases were observed for booked (β=4.40, p=0.045; β=0.26, p=0.002) and actual (β=3.98, p=0.064; β=0.23, p=0.006) utilisation. Bookings per session showed a significant level increase (β=0.34, p=0.002) with no trend change (β=0.00, p=0.790). Across the postintervention period, compared with counterfactual estimates, booked and actual utilisation were 15.0% (95% CI 13.4% to 16.5%, p<0.0001) and 12.2% (95% CI 10.8% to 13.5%, p<0.0001) higher, while bookings per session were 10.9% (95% CI 9.5% to 12.4%, p<0.0001) higher. Significant positive effects were observed for urology, general surgery, gynaecology, plastic surgery and ophthalmology. A significant upward trend in cancellation rates was associated with the introduction of the tool (β=2.1, p=0.001).

Findings suggest that centralised digital scheduling tools can improve theatre capacity by enabling more efficient use of existing capacity through improved scheduling visibility. Future research should explore differences in specialty-level usage and long-term sustainability of gains.

The introduction of the NHS FDP IP CCS product was associated with improved elective theatre utilisation.