Handling Emergency Patients into Elective Surgery Scheduling: A Discrete-Event Systems Based Approach

Efficiently integrating emergency patients into the provisional planning of elective surgeries is crucial for optimizing operating rooms utilization, minimizing disruptions, and maximizing resource efficiency. This paper presents a comprehensive scheduling approach that takes into account both elective and urgent surgical operations. We introduce a new discrete event method combining Timed Coloured Petri Nets (TCPN) and (max, +) algebra to address this rescheduling challenge. TCPNs are employed to model the surgical pathway within the operating theater, while (max, +) linear equations are used to describe the analytical behavior and to calculate the beginning and completion dates of surgical activities. This approach ensures the correct insertion of emergency patients by rescheduling elective cases, thereby minimizing waiting times for emergency patients and preventing overlapping surgeon schedules. Simulation scenarios are performed to illustrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed approach.