How to use Ask Apella to answer your OR operations questions
💡 What you'll learn: What is Ask Apella and how to use it to get answers to questions your OR operations.
Note: Ask Apella is in Beta. It is currently available to users with Management and Leadership roles. We are actively improving it, and your feedback shapes what we build next. If you do not see Ask Apella and would like access, reach out to your Apella customer team.
📚 Table of Contents
- Overview
- Where to find Ask Apella
- What you can ask
- Data privacy
- Tips for better answers
- Beta limitations
- How to give feedback
- FAQs
Overview
Ask Apella is a conversational AI assistant built into the Apella platform. Ask a question about your OR operations in plain language and get data-backed answers, charts, and tables in seconds. It uses Apella-detected OR events, Apella predictions, and your EHR scheduling data to analyze your question, explain trends, and show the data behind its answers.
Where to find Ask Apella
You can open Ask Apella from three places:
- The question bar at the top of most pages. Click into it to see suggested questions based on the page you are on, plus your saved prompts. Type a question and press Enter.
- The sparkle icon in the left-side menu or the bottom right of the screen. This opens Ask Apella as a docked panel on the right side of any page. Drag its left edge to resize it. The panel toolbar has Chat history, Prompts, New chat, Expand, and Close.
- Full-page view. Click Expand in the docked panel to open Ask Apella as its own page, with Chat History on the left. Chat History and Prompts are the two sidebar views.
Suggested questions: You'll see suggested questions when you click into the search bar that you can try, but we encourage you to ask the questions that matter most to your day to day.
What you can ask
Feel free to ask anything about your OR performance: today's progress, case predictions, turnovers, first-case on-time starts, utilization, scheduling accuracy, and more.
You can ask...
- Simple reporting questions ("Where are turnovers taking longest?")
- Bigger, more strategic ones ("Does this service line need more block time?" or "Should I give this surgeon a flip room?").
- Ask as many follow-up questions as you like to dig deeper or refine the answer.
A few more examples:
| Topic | Example question |
|---|---|
| Case phases and timings | "Average wheels-in to case start for Dr. Lee this year" |
| On-time starts | "FCOTS by service line, last quarter" |
| Turnovers | "Turnovers by phase for ortho, last month" |
| OR utilization | "Prime-time utilization by room, September" |
| Scheduling accuracy | "Which procedures run longest over their scheduled time?" |
| Delays and delay reasons | "Top delay reasons for flip room cases this quarter" |
| Today's schedule | "How many cases are scheduled today, and how many are done?" |
| When will my day end | "Which rooms will still be running after 7 PM today?" |
| Surgeon and service-line volume | "Plastics volume by surgeon, 2025 vs. 2026" |
| Who was on a case | "Which scrub techs worked with Dr. Patel last month?" |
Data and privacy
- Grounded in your Apella data. Every answer comes from your organization's Apella data: Apella-detected events, Apella predictions, and integrated EHR schedule information. Ask Apella will not invent numbers.
- Only data you can already see. Ask Apella uses the same permissions as the rest of Apella. It only surfaces data you already have access to.
- Never used to train AI models. Your organization's data is never used to train AI models. Ask Apella does not carry memory across sessions, so it does not retain your conversations to answer future ones. Conversations may be logged to monitor quality and improve the product.
- Shows its work. Ask Apella shows the supporting data behind its answers so you can confirm results, and tells you when it does not have enough information to answer a question.
Tips for better answers
Be as specific as possible when asking questions and state your definitions and assumptions.
- Say the window and the cohort. Include the date range, site, service line or surgeon, and any threshold. The more specific the question, the more specific the answer.
- Same data as Insights. Ask Apella and the Insights dashboards read the same data. If a number differs, the filters differ. Check the turnover-max and prime-time settings, or ask Ask Apella which filters it used.
- Keep the conversation going. Ask follow-up questions to drill into a surgeon, a room, or a time period. Ask Apella can also generate charts and graphs to help visualize the data.
- Export graphs and tables. Below each chart or table you will see icons to grab a picture (PNG) or download the data (CSV).
- Save what you repeat. Weekly reports such as rooms past 8 PM, FCOTS by service line, or turnover by phase can be saved as prompts and re-run in one click. See Saved and Shared Prompts.
A few additional examples:
| Topic | Tip | Try |
|---|---|---|
| Turnover thresholds, types, and phases | Say which turnovers to count and which phases you want. | "Same-surgeon turnovers under 60 minutes, show cleaning and opening time" |
| Your prime-time window | Ask Apella uses your site's configured prime-time window. If you want a different one, state it. | "Utilization between 7:15 AM and 3:00 PM" |
| Custom phases | Use the phase and event names your site uses in your EHR. | "Drape to procedure start, by room, last 6 months" |
| Block sizing and what-ifs | Ask Apella estimates need from case time and turnover. Give it your assumptions and check the result on the Blocks page. | "How many block hours does Dr. John Doe need per week, with 30-minute turnovers?" |
| Scheduled vs. actual | Say whether you mean cases that ran over (ended late) or under (ended early). | "Procedures that finish under their scheduled time by 20% or more" |
A few caveats for the Beta
For the Beta, Ask Apella does not yet support these topics. Instead we've provided where in Apella you can find the relevant data. Tell your Apella CSM if you would like to see it in Ask Apella.
| Topic | Instead |
|---|---|
| Looking ahead 1–2 weeks | Use the Schedule, Flagged Cases, and Time Boost |
| Comparing to other Apella customers | Ask your Apella customer team about benchmarking |
| Staffing rosters (who is scheduled; who was on a case works) | Your staffing system |
| Cancellations and reasons | Your site's EHR reporting |
| Gains from accepted Flagged Cases recommendations | Insights › Flagged Cases |
| Block-fill predictions | The Blocks page |
| Costs, supplies, PACU / beds, clinic schedules | Not in Apella today |
| Video | Live view and Insights |
Give feedback
The best way to help us improve Ask Apella is to leave feedback, especially if something seems off or isn't quite what you needed.
- At the bottom of every response, click the thumbs up or thumbs down icon.
- A short follow-up will appear with quick choices to tell us a little more about the response. Select one, or better yet, add detail in the open text field.
Every piece of feedback you submit is reviewed by our product and engineering teams.
Frequently asked questions
How often does the data refresh?
Data refreshes on the same cadence as the source product. Insights data updates once daily; real-time sources (today's schedule, case progress, predictions) are available in real time.
Why is a number different from what I see on an Insights dashboard?
Ask Apella and the dashboards read the same data, so a difference almost always means different filters, most often the turnover-max or prime-time window. Ask Apella which filters it used, or state the ones you want in your question.
What happens if it doesn't know something?
Ask Apella is grounded in your Apella data, so it will not make up an answer. If it cannot answer a question, it tells you what data it does have access to and points you toward what it can help with.
Can I share an answer with my team?
Yes. Use the export icons below any chart or table to download a PNG or CSV. For questions your team asks regularly, save them as prompts and share them across sites. See Saved and Shared Prompts.
Who has access?
During the Beta, Ask Apella is available to users with Management and Leadership roles. If you would like access for someone else on your team, reach out to your Apella customer team.
I have a question or feedback. Who do I talk to?
Use the thumbs up / thumbs down on any response, or reach out to your Apella customer team. We are happy to walk through Ask Apella together at your next check-in.