Analysis of the integration of the physician rostering problem and the surgery scheduling problem

In this paper, we present the Integrated Physician and Surgery Scheduling Problem (IPSSP) as a new approach for solving operating room scheduling problems where staff rosters for the physicians are integrated in the optimization. A mixed integer linear programming formulation is created based on the most frequently observed objective and restrictions of the surgery scheduling and the physician rostering problem in the literature. We analyze schedules by relaxing both surgery and physician related constraints. We then measure the implications of setting these physician preferences on the surgery schedule. Our experiments show two main interesting insights for physician roster schedulers as well as operating theatre scheduling managers.