Efficient operating room redesign through process improvement and optimal management of scheduled and emergent surgeries

Jomon Aliyas Paul and Arun Jotshi

International Journal of Mathematics in Operational Research, 2013, vol. 5, issue 3, 317-344

Abstract: This article is focused on the benefits of reducing variability and the role of operations research techniques in efficient operating room (OR) redesign through process improvement and optimal management of scheduled and emergent surgeries at hospitals. Issues at a participant hospital are studied which are presented in this article where in the authors develop a three step OR redesign model to address them. Firstly, the process bottlenecks affecting OR performance were identified with the help of a discrete event simulation (DES) model. Once the DES model focusing on the 'as-is' operations of the OR was built and validated, it was used to evaluate various improvement strategies. Secondly, in order to efficiently deal with unscheduled surgeries, a simulated queuing model was used to determine the number of ORs to be reserved which would help in better managing natural variability. Finally, OR time (with the remaining ORs) was allocated for scheduled surgeries after accommodating various operational constraints including surgeon preferences with the help of a mixed integer programme (MIP) model. The empirical observations and results are presented as well.

Keywords: operating room redesign; optimisation; process improvement; block scheduling; discrete event simulation; DES; patient throughput; scheduled surgery; emergency surgery; operations research; operating theatre; process bottlenecks; healthcare management; variability reduction; surgeon preferences; mixed integer programming; MIP. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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