Surgical Operation Scheduling with Goal Programming and Constraint Programming: A Case Study

The achievement of health organizations’ goals is critically important for profitability. For this purpose, their resources, materials, and equipment should be efficiently used in the services they provide. A hospital has sensitive and expensive equipment, and the use of its equipment and resources needs to be balanced. The utilization of these resources should be considered in its operating rooms, as it shares both expense expenditure and revenue generation. This study’s primary aim is the effective and balanced use of equipment and resources in hospital operating rooms. In this context, datasets from a state hospital were used via the goal programming and constraint programming methods. According to the wishes of hospital managers, three scenarios were separately modeled in both methods. According to the obtained results, schedules were compared and analyzed according to the current situation. The hospital-planning approach was positively affected, and goals such as minimization cost, staff and patient satisfaction, prevention over time, and less use were achieved.