Batch scheduling in the histopathology laboratory

Abstract

Histopathology laboratories aim to deliver high quality diagnoses based on patient tissue samples. Timely and high quality care are essential for delivering high quality diagnoses, for example in cancer diagnostics. However, challenges exist regarding employee workload and tardiness of results, which both impact the diagnostic quality. In this paper the histopathology operations are studied, where tissue processors are modeled as batch processing machines. We develop a new 2-phased decomposition approach to solve this NP-hard problem, aiming to improve the spread of workload and to reduce the tardiness. The approach embeds ingredients from various planning and scheduling problems. First, the batching problem is considered, in which batch completion times are equally divided over the day using a Mixed Integer Linear Program. This reduces the peaks of physical work available in the laboratory. Second, the remaining processes are scheduled to minimize the tardiness of orders using a list scheduling algorithm. Both theoretical as well as historical data were used to assess the performance of the method. Results show that using this decomposition method, the peaks in histopathology workload in UMC Utrecht, a large university medical center in The Netherlands, may be reduced with up to 50 % by better spreading the workload over the day. Furthermore, turnaround times are reduced with up to 20 % compared to current practices. This approach is currently being implemented in the aforementioned hospital.

Stochastic integer programming for multi-disciplinary outpatient clinic planning

“…Both local search methods [42,44] and other meta-heuristics [33] are applied to develop patient schedules, as well as approximate stochastic approaches [30] and simple planning rules [22,41].…”

“…To compute the upper bound, the independent sample of size |N | is used to estimate the true objective valueĝ |N | x m |N| , using (22), and the solution variance V arĝ…”

Organizing integrated processes in cancer care

“…In most care processes without a patient present, such as laboratories and sterilization plants, patients are processed in a fixed activity sequence, where various resources are required for the activities [175,263]. Applications from the laboratory, and, on a higher level from the process industry underlying the laboratory process optimization research, can be used in optimizing outpatient clinics.…”

“…Designing a blueprint schedule as a guideline for appointment planning is done with objectives to combine consultations on one day [88], to minimize waiting time on a day [178], or to minimize access time or throughput time [34,175]. In the blueprint, time slots are assigned to patient types [34,88,178], or to process stages [175].…”

“…In the blueprint, time slots are assigned to patient types [34,88,178], or to process stages [175]. Furthermore, the blueprint may prescribe when doctors can best have consultation hours [34,178].…”