Optimizing the master surgery schedule in a private hospital

Abstract

This paper proposes a new mixed-integer linear programming model to build cyclic master surgery schedules (MSSs) for a case study of a medium-sized Portuguese private hospital. The problem integrates tactical and strategical decisions of operating room (OR) planning and scheduling. OR time blocks are assigned to surgical services and to individual surgeons. A target OR time per surgical specialty is not given as it is often the case of other studies in the literature. The model aims to: level the workload at downstream departments (hospitalization units); avoid sharing OR time among different surgical specialties; allocate OR time blocks to the surgical specialty with the highest number of surgeons available; renew the MSS based on recent demand for surgeries. This approach allows the surgical suite to be more efficiently managed, while increasing the sense of fairness among surgeons and facilitating the negotiation for OR time. Moreover, this automated system releases the surgical suite manager to more added value tasks.