Determining master schedule of surgical operations by integer programming: A case study

Abstract

Fixed amounts of available Operating Room (OR) time compatibility of ORs and restrictions related to surgery equipment and surgeon availabilities complicate the process of preparing the master surgical schedule at hospitals. In this research an integer programming model and its application at Etiler World Eye Hospital (in Turkey) are presented in order to create a master surgical schedule that includes the most common surgery types on weekly basis and resolves surgeon equipment and operating room restriction and availability issues. The integer programming model utilizes the available OR time at the hospital by minimizing the total underallocation of OR time with respect to targeted OR time of surgeons taking into consideration surgeon equipment and OR restrictions and availabilities. The mathematical model is then solved using a commercial solver to obtain a weekly master surgical schedule for the hospital.