A Scenario-Based Approach for Operating Theater Scheduling Under Uncertainty

Nickolas K. Freeman (), Sharif H. Melouk () and John Mittenthal ()
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Nickolas K. Freeman: University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204
Sharif H. Melouk: University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487
John Mittenthal: University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487

Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 2016, vol. 18, issue 2, 245-261

Abstract: Elective operation scheduling significantly affects the financial health of a hospital and additional metrics important to stakeholders in an operating theater (OT) environment. In this research, we develop a novel scheduling formulation that explicitly considers the uncertainty in elective operation durations and also plans for potential randomly arriving urgent demands. Using a scenario-based modeling approach, the objective of this formulation is to maximize the expected profit associated with the OT schedule. Since the complexity of the problem is NP-hard, we develop a two-step, heuristic solution approach that allows us to solve practical-sized instances in reasonable time. Experimentation shows that incorporating uncertainty via scenarios increases profit and OT utilization when compared to deterministic scheduling methods. Moreover, explicitly considering urgent arrivals results in a significant reduction in the time that patients of this type wait to receive service, with little impact on other key metrics.

Keywords: healthcare management; math programming (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ormsom:v:18:y:2016:i:2:p:245-261

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