What this tab controls
The Theatres card also states the booking rule up front: “Two cases cannot occupy the same theatre at overlapping times.”
The three phases
Until you customise it, the checklist is the standard WHO Surgical Safety Checklist (2009), in three phases:Set it up
1
Turn the care area on
Theatre appears in the rail only once Surgical theatre is switched on in Facility. It ships off, so a new hospital turns it on before this tab exists at all.
2
Add your theatres
Type the name into the field at the bottom of the Theatres card — “New theatre name, e.g. Theatre 1” — and select Add. Repeat for each room.
3
Mark any room that is out of use
Use the dropdown on the row to set Maintenance or Closed. It saves immediately.
4
Decide about enforcement
Read the two outcomes below before you touch Require the checklist before a case advances.
5
Adapt the checklist only if your form differs
If your site uses its own wording, select Customise the checklist. Your current items are copied in as a starting point and each becomes editable. Edit wording in place, select Retire for items you do not use, and add your own to any phase.
Enforcement: both outcomes, honestly
This is one switch with two defensible answers, and the product does not pretend otherwise.
The card argues for leaving it off, and says why: “Most theatres leave this off deliberately — a system that refuses to let an operation proceed because a box is unticked tends to get worked around, after which the record is wrong and the checklist is theatre. Turn it on only if your governance requires it.”
Which risk your hospital accepts is a governance decision. Make it with the people who will be standing in the room.
What changes once you save
Check it worked
Book a test case in Theatre and confirm your theatres are offered by name. Open its checklist: the phases should read Sign in, Time out and Sign out, with your wording if you customised it. Then try advancing with a phase incomplete — off, you get a warning naming how many items are unconfirmed and can continue; on, the transition is refused.Common issues
There is no Theatre tab
There is no Theatre tab
The Surgical theatre care area is off — it ships off. Turn it on in Facility and the tab appears alongside the other three.
I can see the tab but cannot add a theatre
I can see the tab but cannot add a theatre
Changing theatre setup needs owner or manager, and for a staff member whose permissions are enforced it needs “Manage theatres and the safety checklist”. Without it the field and the dropdowns are read-only.
I cannot edit the checklist items
I cannot edit the checklist items
Until you select Customise the checklist the items are the standard form, shown read-only. Customising copies them in and makes each editable.
A case advanced with the checklist incomplete
A case advanced with the checklist incomplete
That is the default: the gap was shown and recorded rather than blocked. Turn enforcement on if your governance needs it refused.
I retired an item and it still shows on an old case
I retired an item and it still shows on an old case
Deliberately. A sign-off recorded years ago has to stay readable, so retiring takes an item out of new cases without erasing what was confirmed on old ones.