Operating room scheduling problems: A survey and a proposed solution framework

Abstract

Healthcare is becoming one of the fast growing industries in both, the developed and developing countries. Operating rooms provide a large portion of hospital revenue; hence, scheduling operation room surgeries is very important to maximize profits. This paper reviews the three operating room scheduling problems: the case mix problem, the master surgery scheduling problem and the surgery scheduling problem. Also, the paper introduces a research framework for an integrated planning method for the three problems.