Workforce & Rostering — Roster Optimisation

Driving operating room capacity utilisation

Coordinating surgical and anaesthetic staff across main-site and off-site theatres so Ireland's first surgical hub could run at full capacity — unlocking 300 extra theatre sessions in six months.

theatre session throughput, H1 2023 to H1 2026: +10.4%
additional sessions in six months: +300
theatre equivalents of capacity unlocked: ≈1.25

The challenge

Tallaght University Hospital is one of Ireland's major academic teaching hospitals, with 562 beds, 16 theatres and 21 ICU beds, treating over 18,000 surgical patients per year. The hospital opened Ireland's first Surgical Hub, the Reeves Day Surgery Centre (RDSC).

The new off-site hub added significant scheduling complexity for both Anaesthesia and Surgical specialties. Paper and spreadsheet-based processes were prone to error and miscommunication, and a great deal of time was needed to create and manage staff schedules across main theatres, RDSC theatres and ICU. Surgery and Anaesthesia maintained separate schedules that were not integrated, leaving little transparency over who was allocated where.

TUH needed a system for 250 staff that would integrate schedules across disciplines, optimise on-call rosters for fairness, communicate allocation changes in real time, and — critically — drive theatre session utilisation across both locations.

Our approach

MedModus worked with TUH's perioperative directorate to introduce the MedModus Roster Management System (RMS), with integrated optimisation capability, across 12 on-site theatres, four off-site day theatres and the ICU.

Delivery was phased. The first phase covered anaesthesia — theatre, ICU and related services — with roster optimisation implemented for consultants and junior doctors. The second phase extended the system across 10 surgical specialties.

Instead of simply digitising the existing process, the delivery centred on integration: bringing surgical and anaesthetic schedules into one place, giving schedulers, doctors and patient flow teams shared visibility, and making sure changes were communicated instantly through the mobile app.

The solution

The MedModus RMS streamlines the scheduling of surgical and anaesthetic staff to theatres, the ICU and other areas such as the pain management service. Consultant surgeons, consultant anaesthetists and junior doctors all access the system via mobile phone app or desktop application.

The platform automates theatre, ICU and other shift rosters, takes clinician availability into account, flags gaps and leave clashes in real time, and uses optimisation algorithms to build complex on-call rosters fairly. Feature rollout included assignment intelligence, notifications, offers and bids, giving staff an active role in filling and swapping allocations.

Real-time analytics on theatre session utilisation give managers a live view of how capacity is actually used across both sites, and the MedModus team provides rapid-response managed service support.

“MedModus' RMS ensures staff have real time visibility of theatre schedules and any changes. The system is key to effectively co-ordinating the allocation of surgeons and anaesthetists to our on-site and off-site theatre locations.”

Assistant Director of Nursing Theatre, Tallaght University Hospital

Capacity impact

The clearest measure of the implementation is theatre session throughput. Comparing the first six months of 2023 with the first six months of 2026, TUH delivered 300 more theatre sessions across its two sites — a 10.4% increase — building on sustained growth since 2022, when the pre-implementation baseline sat around 340 sessions a month.

That uplift is equivalent to unlocking roughly 1.25 additional theatres of capacity without adding physical estate, and translates to over 600 additional sessions annually and the capacity to treat around 1,500 more patients per year. It also provides the foundation for a shift to demand-led theatre allocation.

+300
additional theatre sessions delivered in six months: +10.4%
growth in session throughput, H1 2023 to H1 2026: ≈1.25
theatre equivalents of capacity unlocked across both sites

Theatre sessions by month and year

2022
2023
2024
2025
2026

Six-month impact by site

Site	H1 2023	H1 2026	Change
Main site theatres	2,234	2,407	+173 (7.7%)
Reeves Day Surgery Centre	645	772	+127 (19.7%)
Total	2,879	3,179	+300 (10.4%)

Outcomes

What changed for the organisation once the platform was live.

600+ sessions
additional theatre capacity unlocked annually
Hundreds of hours
of manual roster administration removed
Weekly meetings
cancelled through live scheduling
Real-time
multi-site view of theatre allocations
Demand-led
theatre allocation now within reach

Facing a similar challenge?

We will walk you through how this engagement was delivered and what the equivalent first phase would look like for your organisation.

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