Three-Stage Optimization Approach Using Nonlinear Programming and Simulation

Problems involving patient scheduling and resource sizing are common in healthcare environments.Since the variability is higher in healthcare processes, procedure times, patient arrivals, and recovery times are critical factors for decision-making.Therefore, we propose an Operating Room scheduling optimization and resource management in a Surgical Centre (SC).Then, it aims daily scheduling planning to better assist patients linked to decrease SC's overtime and increase the financial results.For this, a three-stage approach was proposed to split the problem due to its high complexity.Firstly, Nonlinear Programming was used to prioritize the procedures to be performed, since it was not possible to perform all of them due to time constraints.Moreover, a Discrete Event Simulation model of the SC was built, and through the Simulation-based Optimization approach, we carried out other twooptimization stages, aiming to obtain the optimal procedure scheduling and the optimal resources sizing, respectively.It was possible to analyse the SC performance considering different decisions about overtime.