Robust operating room planning through a novel modified block scheduling strategy

Abstract

In this article, the surgical case assignment problem (SCAP) with uncertain duration of surgeries is assessed. This problem is defined as assigning the subsets of patients on the waiting list to the time blocks of operating rooms (ORs) in a given planning horizon. To further increase the OR utility rate and service rate, a novel modified block scheduling strategy is proposed and modelled as a mixed integer programming model. Then a robust optimisation model is proposed to tackle uncertainties in surgery duration. A set of real-based instances from 'Al Zahra Hospital', a teaching hospital in Iran, is applied to verify the proposed deterministic model. The optimal solution is compared with the actual hospital plan indicating the efficiency of this proposed model in practice. A robust model is evaluated through a set of instances. Numerical results indicate that the average percent of overtime reduction is 51.95% by applying the robust model. Copyright © 2022 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.