Operating Room (Re)Scheduling with Bed Management via ASP

Abstract

The Operating Room Scheduling (ORS) problem is the task of assigning patients to operating rooms (ORs), taking into account different specialties, lengths, and priority scores of each planned surgery, OR session durations, and the availability of beds for the entire length of stay (LOS) both in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and in the wards. A proper solution to the ORS problem is of primary importance for the healthcare service quality and the satisfaction of patients in hospital environments. In this paper we first present a solution to the problem based on Answer Set Programming (ASP). The solution is tested on benchmarks with realistic sizes and parameters, on three scenarios for the target length on 5-day scheduling, common in small–medium-sized hospitals, and results show that ASP is a suitable solving methodology for the ORS problem in such setting. Then, we also performed a scalability analysis on the schedule length up to 15 days, which still shows the suitability of our solution also on longer plan horizons. Moreover, we also present an ASP solution for the rescheduling problem, that is, when the offline schedule cannot be completed for some reason. Finally, we introduce a web framework for managing ORS problems via ASP that allows a user to insert the main parameters of the problem, solve a specific instance, and show results graphically in real time.

Logic programming for deliberative robotic task planning

“…Several other implementations of ASP have been proposed by Tu et al (2007), where an Answer Set-based Conditional Planner (ASCP) is presented with applications also to robotic examples; Chen et al (2013), where ASP is implemented on the OK-KeJia service robot prototype for planning and decision-making based on multiple sources of information in the context of human-robot interaction; Baral and Son (2015), proving the advantages of using ASP for task planning and failure analysis and explanation in human-robot interaction; Ji (2009) for the domestic service scenario; Sridharan et al (2019), combining ASP with Markov decision processes in a domestic scenario; Bertolucci et al ( 2021) for dual arm manipulation; Falkner et al (2018) propose a review of recent applications of ASP to industry, while Erdem and Patoglu (2018) survey recent applications in various robotic fields. Finally, we mention recently growing interest in ASP applications to the scheduling problem, either in transportation / routing (Gebser et al 2018b;Abels et al 2019) or space assignment (Dodaro et al 2021(Dodaro et al , 2022 scenarios. Though robotic implementations are still missing, we believe this is an interesting application of ASP to trending robotic problems, e.g., autonomous vehicle and industrial / service automation design.…”

Optimal Scheduling for Automated Wetetch Stations with One Robot in Semiconductor Manufacturing via Constraint Answer Set Programming

“…ASP has been used to solve combinatorial knowledge-based problems in many different areas. Among the most outstanding applications are the decision-making system of a spacecraft [10], planning for the generation of equipment in a shipyard [11], phylogenetic systems [12], autonomous vehicles in Car Assembly [13], and re-scheduling for an operating room [14].…”

Scheduling of Automated Wet-Etch Stations with One Robot in Semiconductor Manufacturing via Constraint Answer Set Programming

“…ASP has been used to solve combinatorial knowledge-based problems in many different areas. Among the most outstanding applications are the decision-making system of a spacecraft [15], planning for the generation of equipment in a shipyard [16], phylogenetic systems [17], autonomous vehicles in Car Assembly [18], rescheduling for an operating room [19], diagnosis [20], and planning [21].…”