Case Study: UCHealth achieves 80% OR utilization with LeanTaaS' Predicted Availability Report

UCHealth Leverages ML Unfilled Block Predictions to Achieve 80% OR Utilization

UCHealth, a Colorado-based health system with 12 hospitals, 4 ambulatory surgery centers, 140 operating rooms and over 85,000 procedures per year, had previously adopted LeanTaaS’ iQueue for Operating Rooms but still struggled with lack of timely, transparent reporting of block time. Surgeons and schedulers weren’t proactively releasing underused blocks, there was insufficient capacity to backfill open time, and managers couldn’t plan staffing or accommodate non‑block holders—hindering recovery of surgical volume after the pandemic.

Working with LeanTaaS, UCHealth developed the Predicted Availability Report: a daily early‑morning email that statistically predicts OR blocks likely to be used 25% or less, broken down by date, location, block holder and confidence levels (90/95/99%) so schedulers can proactively fill or release time. The LeanTaaS‑enabled solution produced measurable gains—an average of 19 days of proactive releases, a 49% release fill rate and 80% OR utilization—helping UCHealth leaders rebuild surgical revenue and recapture deferred volume.

UCHealth