Increasing Utilization in a Hospital Operating Department Using Simulation Modeling

This article focuses on the planning and scheduling of operating rooms (ORs) in a regional hospital in Sweden. A simulation study was carried out to find new ideas and new planning and scheduling techniques to improve the overall process of surgery, including pre- and post-operating activities. This study mainly addresses the problem of low utilization of the ORs, and also takes into consideration problems with variation in workload, both in ORs and in post-anesthesia care units. The final simulation model includes pre-operative care carried out in the operating department and all ORs, as well as post-operative care units. It was driven by a number of input parameters, such as the volume and specific characteristics of actual cases, opening hours and number of ORs, and the number of beds for pre- and post-operative care. The model also includes logic for prioritizing and allocating cases to available ORs, planning operating schedules and the utilization of medical equipment limited in quantity. Output performance measures from simulation experiments include the utilization of allocated OR times, waiting time for patients, queue dynamics, number of cancellations, and variation of finishing times, as well as occupancy statistics in the post-operative care unit. Four different change alternatives were evaluated using the simulation model. Simulation experiments showed that with the implementation of the proposed changes it is possible to achieve slightly better and more even resource utilization, as well as provide greater flexibility in scheduling operations.