The Referral to Treatment (RTT) functionality in Rio supports data collection and reporting to monitor the 18 week referral to treatment standard. RTT pathways track a patient's entire journey from referral through to first definitive treatment.
What is an RTT pathway
An RTT pathway is a timed record of a patient's journey from the point their referral is received to the point they receive their first definitive treatment. The pathway has a clock that starts when the referral is accepted and stops when treatment is delivered.
RTT pathways work alongside waiting lists, they do not replace them. For services subject to the 18 week standard, both a waiting list and an RTT pathway should be configured.
Which services need RTT pathways
RTT pathways are required for:
Elective outpatient and inpatient services subject to the 18 week standard.
Specialties required to report RTT data to NHS England via the Commissioning Data Set (CDS).
Services where the full referral-to-treatment journey needs to be tracked.
RTT pathways are not used for:
Mental health services not subject to the 18 week standard.
Community services using the Community Services Data Set (CSDS) use waiting lists only for these.
Emergency or urgent care pathways.
đNote: If you are unsure whether your service is subject to the 18 week RTT standard, check with your service lead or information governance team before configuring RTT pathways.
How RTT pathways and waiting lists work together
RTT pathways can be monitored directly from the waiting list screens in Rio by switching to the RTT pathway view. This gives a unified view of both waiting list and RTT pathway status for each patient, including:
RTT pathway name and start date.
Expected end date (based on the 18 week duration).
Days remaining on the pathway.
Warning or breach status.
đ¤Tip: Patients approaching their RTT breach date are highlighted in the RTT pathway view. Use the Warning To Breach setting on each pathway to ensure teams have enough lead time to act.
RTT pathway duration
The standard RTT pathway duration is 18 weeks (126 days). This is the maximum time from referral to first definitive treatment under the national standard.
A Warning To Breach period (typically 14 days) can be configured on each pathway. When a patient's remaining time falls within this window, a warning is displayed so that teams can take action before the pathway breaches.
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