Operating room planning and surgical case scheduling: a review of literature

Abstract

This paper provides a comprehensive survey of research on operating room planning and scheduling problems. Aiming to give a comprehensive classification on the studied problems, we review the literature from the perspectives of decision level, scheduling strategy, patient characteristics, problem setting, uncertainty, mathematical models, and solutions and methods. The papers are reviewed in diversified ways so as to obtain a detailed overview in this area, and the fields that need to be focused on are summarized. It shows that mathematical programming and heuristics are frequently applied in the complex linear and combinatorial optimization problems. Furthermore, future research trends and directions on operating room planning and scheduling are also identified.