Using Augmented ɛ-constraint Method for Solving a Multi-objective Operating Theater Scheduling

AbstractOperating Theaters are among the most critical parts in hospitals. Generally, an Operating Theater consists of three stages: Public Health Unit (PHU), Operating Rooms, and Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU). Operating Theater significantly affects annual costs and revenues of a hospital due to requiring skillful staff and expensive equipment to operate surgeries beside high service fees. In this paper, proposing an operating theater daily schedule to serve surgical demands is considered as a three-stage flow-shop scheduling problem. The problem is formulated as a multi-objective mixed integer programming model aiming to balance workload of operating rooms and surgeons, minimize waiting times and maximize human (surgeons) reliability. Weighted-sum method and an augmented ɛ-constraint method are applied to solve two test problems. Analysis of obtained solutions verifies that both solution approaches are capable of providing appropriate schedules in a reasonable time