Optimization modelling of hospital operating room planning: analyzing strategies and problem settings

There is a growing proportion of elderly which increases the demand for health care. As a consequence health care costs are rising and the need for hospital resource planning seems urgent. Different aspects (often conflicting) such as patient demand, clinical need and political ambitions must be considered. In this paper we propose a model for analyzing hospital surgical suite with focus on operating room planning. An optimization model is developed for patient operation scheduling and for key resource allocation. Medical examinations and treatments of patients are performed using a number of resources similar like products are refined in a number of processes in a logistics chain. Optimal resource allocation given different objectives according to patient perspective, staff perspective, costs etc. under different system settings (e.g. principles for operating room allocation and amount of stand-by personnel) is studied. Preliminary results are presented based on case studies from two Swedish hospitals.