> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.clinikehr.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Today's theatre list

> Book a case onto the day's operating list, work the safety checklist, move it through theatre and recovery, and sign the operation note.

export const AuditNote = ({action = 'This action'}) => <div className="ck-callout ck-callout--info" role="note">
    <p className="ck-callout__body">
      {action} is written to your workspace's audit log with your name, the
      record touched and the time — a HIPAA requirement, and one you can review
      yourself under <strong>Audit Log</strong>. See{' '}
      <a href="/platform/security/audit-log">Audit log</a>.
    </p>
  </div>;

export const StillStuck = ({topic}) => <div className="ck-callout ck-callout--note" role="note">
    <p className="ck-callout__body">
      <strong>Still stuck{topic ? ` with ${topic}` : ''}?</strong>{' '}
      Check <a href="/platform/help/troubleshooting">Troubleshooting</a> first —
      it covers the failures we see most often. If that does not resolve it,{' '}
      <a href="/platform/help/contact-support">contact support</a> and include
      your workspace name and the time the problem happened, so we can find the
      matching entry in your audit log.
    </p>
  </div>;

export const TaskHeader = ({before, time, after}) => <div className="ck-task">
    {before ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">Before you start</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{before}</p>
      </div> : null}

    {time ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">Takes about</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{time}</p>
      </div> : null}

    {after ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">When you're done</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{after}</p>
      </div> : null}
  </div>;

export const Path = ({steps = []}) => <span className="ck-path">
    {steps.map((s, i) => <span key={i} className="ck-path__step">
        {i > 0 ? <span className="ck-path__sep" aria-hidden="true">
            ›
          </span> : null}
        {s}
      </span>)}
  </span>;

export const Availability = ({editions = ['all'], plans, roles, note}) => {
  const list = editions.includes('all') ? ['clinic', 'pharmacy', 'lims'] : editions;
  return <div className="ck-avail" role="note" aria-label="Feature availability">
      <span className="ck-avail__label">Available in</span>

      {list.map(e => <span key={e} className={`ck-pill ck-pill--${e}`}>
          {EDITION_LABELS[e] || e}
        </span>)}

      {plans ? <span className="ck-avail__label">Plan</span> : null}
      {plans ? <span className="ck-pill ck-pill--plan">{plans}</span> : null}

      {roles ? <span className="ck-avail__label">Who</span> : null}
      {roles ? <span className="ck-pill ck-pill--role">{roles}</span> : null}

      {note ? <span className="ck-avail__note">{note}</span> : null}
    </div>;
};

<Availability editions={['clinic']} plans="Enterprise" roles="Theatre staff" note="Needs the Surgical theatre care area — off by default" />

**Theatre List** is the day's operating list: **Scheduled cases, their status, and what is running late.** Every case carries its safety checklist, its status and its operation note in a single sheet.

<Path steps={['Sidebar', 'Theatre', "Today's List"]} />

<TaskHeader before="The Surgical theatre care area switched on" time="About two minutes to book a case" after="A case on the list, a worked checklist and a signed operation note" />

## Before you start

**Surgical theatre** is the only care area that starts **off**, because most sites that sign up do not operate. An owner turns it on in **Settings → Facility** — see [Care areas](/hospital/get-started/care-areas). Theatres are added under **Settings → Theatre**; see [Set up theatres](/hospital/get-started/theatre-setup).

## What you're looking at

A day picker chooses the day, **Refresh** re-reads it, and **Book case** adds to it. Four tiles run across the top:

| Tile            | Counts                              |
| --------------- | ----------------------------------- |
| **Cases**       | Everything booked for that day      |
| **In theatre**  | Cases currently in the room         |
| **In recovery** | Out of the room, not yet completed  |
| **Delayed**     | Start time passed, case not started |

Each tile shows an em dash while it loads, never a zero — so a number on screen is always a real count.

Each row shows the times, the case number, the procedure, then patient · theatre · side, with the status badge on the right. **Delayed** shows in red; **Cancelled** is deliberately muted, because a cancelled case is not an error. Urgency appears only when it is not **Elective**.

An empty day reads **No cases scheduled** / **Nothing is booked for this day.** With no theatres created, a line under the board says: "No theatres are set up yet. Add them in Settings → Theatre; a case can still be booked without one, and assigned later."

## Book a case

<Steps>
  <Step title="Select Book case">
    The **Book a theatre case** sheet opens. Its own description tells you the important part: **The case number is generated automatically.**
  </Step>

  <Step title="Choose the patient and the procedure">
    Find them with **Search patients…**, then enter the **Procedure** — the field's example is "e.g. Laparoscopic appendicectomy". Set **Side** to **Left**, **Right**, **Bilateral** or leave it **Not applicable**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Set urgency, coding, theatre and time">
    **Urgency** is **Elective**, **Urgent** or **Emergency**; **Procedure code** and **ASA grade** are optional. Pick a **Theatre** — only active rooms are offered — or leave it unassigned and allocate later. Set **Start** and **End**; the end must be after the start.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Name the care team">
    Under **Care team**, choose the **Primary surgeon**, **Anaesthetist** and **Scrub nurse**, each of which can stay **Unassigned**. Add anything the team needs beforehand under **Pre-operative notes**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Select Book case">
    You get **Case booked** — **It now appears on the theatre list.** If the room is taken you are told plainly: "That theatre is already booked for part of this time. Choose another room or another slot."
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Work the case

Selecting a case opens its sheet, in three sections.

### Surgical safety checklist

Three phases, each with its own items and a checked-of-total badge:

| Phase        | When                              |
| ------------ | --------------------------------- |
| **Sign in**  | Before induction of anaesthesia   |
| **Time out** | Before skin incision              |
| **Sign out** | Before the patient leaves theatre |

New hospitals start on the standard WHO Surgical Safety Checklist (2009); an owner can customise it under **Settings → Theatre**. Ticking is deliberately open to everyone in the room — a team instrument, not a surgeon's form — and each tick saves as you make it.

What an incomplete phase *does* depends on one switch, **Require the checklist before a case advances**, **off by default**. Off, the sheet says **Gaps are recorded but do not stop the case.** and you get a note like "Time out is incomplete — 3 of 7 items not confirmed." On, it says **This clinic requires each phase to be complete before the case advances.** and the button is disabled until it is.

### Status

The **Status** section offers a **Move to** button for each legal next state:

| From            | Offered                                                 |
| --------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Scheduled**   | **Move to in theatre** · **Cancel case**                |
| **In theatre**  | **Move to in recovery** · **Cancel case**               |
| **In recovery** | **Move to completed** — cancelling is no longer offered |

**Cancel case** opens a dialog headed **Cancel this case**, warning that "A cancelled case cannot be reopened — going ahead later means booking a new case." A **Reason** is required before the button will fire.

Terminal states are honest dead ends rather than hidden buttons: **This case is completed. A correction is recorded as an amendment, not a status change.** and **This case was cancelled. Schedule a new case rather than reopening it.**

### Operation note

Enter **Findings**, **Procedure** and **Post-operative instructions**. **Save draft** keeps it editable. **Download PDF** works at any point — a draft is stamped as unsigned, so an unfinished note can be read on paper without ever looking final.

<Warning>
  **Sign note** is final. Once signed, the note cannot be edited, the safety checklist becomes read-only, and the recorded care team freezes: "This note is signed and can no longer be edited here. Record a correction as an amendment so the original stays intact." Writing the note and signing it are separate permissions, so a scrub nurse can write the account without being able to sign it off.
</Warning>

<AuditNote action="Opening a theatre case" />

## Who can do this

Your **role** decides whether the **Theatre** group opens at all, and whether an owner has hidden it from that role under [Role navigation](/hospital/settings/role-navigation). **Permissions** decide each act inside it:

| Action                                   | Who by default      | Permission                                   |
| ---------------------------------------- | ------------------- | -------------------------------------------- |
| Book or reschedule a case                | Theatre staff       | **Book and reschedule cases**                |
| Move a case through theatre and recovery | Theatre staff       | **Advance a case through theatre**           |
| Cancel a case                            | Theatre staff       | **Cancel a case**                            |
| Write the operation note                 | Theatre staff       | **Record the operation note**                |
| Sign the operation note                  | Surgeons            | **Sign the operation note**                  |
| Add theatres, edit the checklist         | Owners and managers | **Manage theatres and the safety checklist** |
| Tick a checklist item                    | Anyone in the room  | Deliberately ungated                         |

Enforcement is **opt-in per person** — someone never saved in the permissions sheet is unrestricted, and the sheet warns **"Saving starts enforcing"**. A **denied action is written to the audit log**; an allowed one is not. Hiding the group from a role's sidebar is a convenience, not a security boundary. See [Staff permissions](/platform/team/permissions).

## Check it worked

* The case sits on the list for the right day, with a generated case number.
* Each checklist phase shows its checked-of-total badge.
* The **In theatre** and **In recovery** tiles move as you advance the case.
* A signed note shows a **Signed** badge and its three fields are read-only.

## Common issues

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Theatre is missing from the sidebar">
    The **Surgical theatre** care area is off by default. An owner turns it on in **Settings → Facility** — see [Care areas](/hospital/get-started/care-areas).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Two-factor verification is required to view the theatre list.">
    A signed-in session is not enough for theatre records. Sign in again and complete your second factor — see [Two-factor authentication](/platform/security/mfa).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="A Move to button is disabled">
    Either an incomplete phase is blocking it under your hospital's enforcement setting — the alert above the button names the phase and the count — or you do not have **Advance a case through theatre**.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="A case cannot be completed">
    "A case can only be completed from recovery." Move it to recovery first. Cancelling is not offered from recovery either — a case that got that far is recorded, not erased.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="That theatre is already booked for part of this time">
    Two cases cannot occupy one room at overlapping times. Choose another room or another slot; the error also highlights the **Theatre** field.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="I signed the note too early">
    A signed note is not editable. Record a correction as an amendment — the original stays intact, which is what makes the record trustworthy. A second attempt to sign is refused outright.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## FAQ

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Can I book a case before the theatre exists?">
    Yes. Leave **Theatre** unassigned and allocate the room later. Booking is never blocked on the estate being configured.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Where does the case number come from?">
    ClinikEHR mints it per hospital when the case is created. You never type one, and it cannot be edited afterwards.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Should we turn on checklist enforcement?">
    Most theatres deliberately leave it off. 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.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Where do I find last month's cases?">
    On [Case history](/hospital/theatre/history), which searches across days by case number or procedure. A live case can also be rescheduled from there; a completed or cancelled one cannot.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

<StillStuck />