Multi-phase and Integrated Multi-objective Cyclic Operating Room Scheduling Based on an Improved NSGA-ⅡApproach

Abstract

The operating room (OR) is an important department in a hospital, and the scheduling of surgeries in ORs is a challenging combinatorial optimization problem. In this paper, we address the problem of multiple resource allocation of ORs and propose a surgery scheduling scheme for OR units. To solve this problem, a multi-phase and integrated multi-objective linear programming model is proposed. The first phase of the proposed model is a resource allocation model, which mainly focuses on the allocation of ORs for each surgical specialty (SS). Based on the results of the first phase, the second phase is the cyclic Master Surgical Schedule model, which aims to schedule the surgeries in each SS. The proposed models are solved by the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II), which was improved. Finally, two numerical experiments based on practical data are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed models as well as to evaluate the performance of the improved NSGA-II. Our final results illustrate that our proposed model can provide hospital managers with a series of “optimal” solutions to effectively allocate relevant resources and ORs for surgeries, and they show that the improved NSGA-II has high computational efficiency and is more suitable in solving larger-scale problems.

Research Trends in the Optimization of the Master Surgery Scheduling Problem

“…Two papers have a horizon length of more than 365 days [49,63]. The other settings are less common, with only one paper each for one to six days [59] and 91 to 365 days [57]. Fig.…”

“…Kumar et al [72] did not mention the name of their solver. Two papers also used CPLEX besides implementing a heuristic approach [54,59].…”

“…A surgery group is a cluster of patients grouped based on their similar characteristics [54]. We identified that the most common type of surgery group is the medical specialities associated with the surgeries used in 19 papers [14,25,[49][50][51][52][53][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64]. In contrast, other researchers assigned surgeons, which enabled them to consider surgeons' availability and preferences [50,[65][66][67][68][69][70][71].…”

“…Minimize the number of operating room time reserved for emergency surgeries [50] Costs Minimize total hospitalization cost [71] Minimize machine cost [65] Minimize overtime cost [59,71] Minimize loss due to utilization disruption [51] Maximize profit [59] Schedule Assignment Maximize closeness of strategic allocation and MSSP allocation [64] Balance workload [60] Maximize staff preference [63,68] Minimize frequency of surgeon assigned to low preference score [68] Minimize workday variation [65] Maximize the frequency of surgeons assigned to the same slot each week [68] Minimize frequency of surgeons assigned to consecutive slots in the same theatre and day [68] Minimize frequency of surgeons assigned to consecutive slots in a different theatre on the same day [68] Upstream and Downstream Resources Maximize bed utilization [56] Minimize the difference between the number of beds available and used [18,68] Minimize the maximum number of patients [58,65,66] Minimize the number of unused beds [53,70] Minimize expected bed shortage [67] Minimize variation in bed usage [54,58,66] Minimize deviation from a target value [24,63] Minimize the number of patients in the wrong ward Mathematical models may have single or multiple objectives. In a single-objective optimization, only one specific criterion is optimized.…”

The Impact of Manufacturing Flexibility and Multi-Criteria Optimization on the Sustainability of Manufacturing Systems

“…Multi-objective optimization is an area that deals with multi-objective decision-making of mathematical and combinatorial optimization problems [19]. Multi-criteria optimization problems involve more than one optimization function, where several variables of the optimization problem need to be optimized.…”