A decomposition approach for the combined master surgical schedule and surgical case assignment problems

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Operations Research
• Surgical Planning

Background:

• Hospital management requires efficient Operating Room (OR) planning for prompt decision-making.
• Unpredicted events and the need to evaluate alternative scenarios necessitate rapid OR planning and scheduling tools.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and test a planning tool that supports hospital managers in making timely OR planning decisions.
• To enable efficient analysis of various alternatives to current OR planning and scheduling.

Main Methods:

• A decomposition approach is proposed, first determining the Master Surgical Schedule (MSS) weekly.
• Subsequent allocation of elective surgeries to sessions based on duration, waiting time, and priority.
• Computational experiments compare the decomposition approach with an integrated approach using a case study from an Italian hospital.

Main Results:

• The decomposition approach yields satisfactory solutions.
• Significant savings in computation time were observed compared to the integrated approach.
• Scalability was tested for different Operating Theatre (OT) sizes, and a pilot example demonstrated decision-support utility.

Conclusions:

• The proposed decomposition approach offers an efficient and effective method for OR planning and scheduling.
• This tool supports hospital managers in optimizing OR utilization and decision-making.
• The approach provides a valuable solution for improving hospital operational efficiency.