Building Cyclic Schedules for Emergency Department Physicians

Yann Ferrand (), Michael Magazine (), Uday S. Rao () and Todd F. Glass ()
Additional contact information
Yann Ferrand: Department of Operations and Business Analytics, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221
Michael Magazine: Department of Operations and Business Analytics, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221
Uday S. Rao: Department of Operations and Business Analytics, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221
Todd F. Glass: Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Liberty Campus, Cincinnati, Ohio 45229

Interfaces, 2011, vol. 41, issue 6, 521-533

Abstract: Physicians at a branch of the emergency department at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center complained that their schedules were too erratic because of the multitude of operating requirements, regulatory constraints, physician preferences, and holiday requests. We addressed this issue by using integer programming to build cyclic schedules that can be repeated throughout the year. These schedules are flexible enough to handle incorporating holidays, work assignments, and vacation requests ex post. After we rolled out the calendar-year-based cyclic schedule, we captured statistics to assess the viability and the quality of the yearly schedule generated. Surveys of the physicians and the scheduler after implementation showed that the new schedule provides predictability and well-balanced work patterns.

Keywords: health care; emergency department physician scheduling; cyclic schedule; integer programming applications (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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