Integrating surgeons' preferences in the operating theatre planning

In healthcare systems, the operating theatre is recognised as having an important role, notably in terms of generated income and cost. Its management, and in particular its scheduling, is thus a critical activity. A less costly organisation of the operating rooms needs a more rational use of the resources, which requires optimising the surgical schedule. As we are concerned in the medical staff well-being, we integrate the surgeons' preferences when setting up such schedules. This planning process is usually decomposed in two sequential phases: a planning stage followed by a scheduling stage. Due to this decomposition the resulting solutions may turn out to be sub-optimal. This paper describes a mixed-integer programming that completely covers the planning and scheduling of the surgical operations. The pursued objective is twofold: minimising the operating cost and maximising the surgeons' welfare. [Received 30 September 2008; Revised 29 May 2009; Revised 18 March 2010; Accepted 2 June 2010]