Productivity-driven physician scheduling in emergency departments

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Operations Research
• Emergency Medicine

Background:

• Emergency departments (EDs) face challenges with physician scheduling, patient demand fluctuations, and physician productivity.
• Optimizing schedules is crucial for improving patient flow and reducing wait times.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an alternative approach for calculating physician productivity in EDs.
• To create productivity-driven schedules aligning physician availability with patient demand.
• To enhance patient wait times and reduce ED overcrowding without compromising fairness.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of historical ED data (2008-2017) for demand prediction and physician productivity estimation.
• Development of a mathematical programming model for schedule optimization.
• Incorporation of physician preferences and fairness constraints into the model.

Main Results:

• Integrating physician productivity into scheduling reduced demand under-covering by 10.85%.
• Fairness in shift distribution among physicians was maintained.
• Physician preferences experienced a 7.61% deterioration.

Conclusions:

• Incorporating physician productivity into ED scheduling models can significantly reduce overcrowding and improve healthcare service quality.
• The model balances demand, productivity, fairness, and physician preferences, offering a practical approach for ED management.