Multi-Objective Surgery Scheduling Optimization Based on Simulation Modeling and Heuristic Algorithm

The operating room (OR) is one of the main hospital and surgical center departments that dramatically influence the finances, waiting time of both patients and doctors, and facility utilization. It is essential to find effective surgery scheduling to optimize the coordination between multiple ORs, which can satisfy both patients and the organization. In this work, the surgery scheduling problem is viewed as an optimization problem for maximizing profit and maximizing operating room utilization while controlling the surgical center overtime. Four heuristic scheduling rules based on Smallest Variance First (SVF) and Maximum Earning Rate (MER) are proposed to find the optimal surgery schedule, including SVF-SVF, SVF-MER, MER-MER, and MER-SVF. The performance of the proposed heuristic scheduling rules is validated and evaluated in a Discrete-Event Simulation (DES) model with different staffing plans. The optimal configuration will be provided using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) based on the data gathered from the simulation model, including the surgery schedule and the staffing plan. The results show that the proposed scheduling rules can effectively provide surgical arrangements.