Reading a theatre list that always overruns on Thursdays

Elective lists that overrun on Thursdays create Friday morning conflict: delayed starts, cancelled minor cases, and a recovery bay that never clears. Case-mix explanations are popular because they protect schedules; they are not always true.

Separate start delay from duration creep

Plot scheduled knife-to-skin against actual start, then plot procedure duration separately. In several Bangkok engagements, Thursday overruns began with late starts after Wednesday-night trauma add-ons emptied recovery, not with longer cancer cases. Those are different conversations—one about recovery nursing and emergency capacity, one about listing rules.

Keep names out of the first draft

First visuals should be specialty- and day-level. Named surgeon charts belong only if the sponsor asks and governance allows. The goal of healthcare operations insights here is a shared constraint map, not a public ranking.

What to take to the briefing

One chart of start delay by weekday, one of recovery occupancy by hour on Thursday–Friday, and a short list of listing rules that currently ignore recovery state. Leave capital requests for a fourth theatre until those two charts have been debated.