Medical Staff Scheduling Using Simulated Annealing

Abstract

Purpose: The efficiency of medical staff is a fundamental feature of healthcare facilities quality. Therefore the better implementation of their preferences into the scheduling problem might not only rise the work-life balance of doctors and nurses, but also may result into better patient care. This paper focuses on optimization of medical staff preferences considering the scheduling problem. Methodology/Approach:We propose a medical staff scheduling algorithm based on simulated annealing, a well-known method from statistical thermodynamics. We define hard constraints, which are linked to legal and working regulations, and minimize the violations of soft constraints, which are related to the quality of work, psychic, and work-life balance of staff.Findings: On a sample of 60 physicians and nurses from gynecology department we generated monthly schedules and optimized their preferences in terms of soft constraints. Our results indicate that the final value of objective function optimized by proposed algorithm is more than 18-times better in violations of soft constraints than initially generated random schedule that satisfied hard constraints.Research Limitation/implication: Even though the global optimality of final outcome is not guaranteed, desirable solutionwas obtained in reasonable time.Originality/Value of paper: We show that designed algorithm is able to successfully generate schedules regarding hard and soft constraints. Moreover, presented method is significantly faster than standard schedule generation and is able to effectively reschedule due to the local neighborhood search characteristics of simulated annealing.

Hospital Nurse Scheduling Optimization Using Simulated Annealing and Probabilistic Cooling Scheme

“…While soft constraints are given weight that corresponds to the level of importance. The formulation of the cost function by weighting is formulated using equation (5) [10]. (5) where :…”

“…In the exponential cooling scheme proved to reach global minimum when = 0.95 but produces a very rapid temperature drop. In this study a Probabilistic Cooling Scheme (PCS) cooling scheme will utilize the advantages of logarithmic and exponential cooling schemes in equation (10).…”

Healthcare Staff Scheduling Using Optimization Under Uncertainty and Simulation

“…Emergency room physician scheduling is performed using tabu search in [Beaulieu et al, 2000] and particle swarm optimization in [Lo and Lin, 2011]; both studies consider three non-overlapped shifts and allow user-definable planning horizons. The authors in [Rosocha et al, 2015] focus on optimizing medical staff preferences through a simulated annealing-based algorithm. Resident scheduling is addressed in [Wang et al, 2007], where a genetic algorithm's mutation operator is proposed for cost minimization.…”

“…This appendix provides a detailed account of the constraints defined in the reviewed Physician Scheduling Problem (PSP) formulations. ---------------x ------------------------- Bard et al [2013] x --x x ----- Bard et al [2014] x --x ------ Bard et al [2016] --x -x ----- Baum et al [2014] --x -x ----- Beaulieu et al [2000] x ---------Bowers et al [2016] x --------- Bruni and Detti [2014] x ---------Brunner and Edenharter [ ] x ------x --Brunner et al [2009 x --------- ----------Carrasco [2010] x -----x ---Carter and Lapierre [2001] x x -------- Cohn et al [2009] x --------- Day et al [2006] x -----x --- Ferrand et al [2011] ---x ------Fügener et al [2015 x -----x ---Gendron et al [2005] x ---------Güler [2013] x --------- Güler et al [2013] --x -x ----- Gunawan and Lau [2010] ---------x Hidri and Labidi [2016] x ---------Huang et al [2016] x --------- Kazemian et al [2014] x ---------Lo and Lin [2011] x --------- Rosocha et al [2015] x -----x --- Savage et al [2015] -x x -------Sherali et al [2002] x -----x --- Keskinocak [2016] ----x -x ---Smalley et al [2015] x ---------Stolletz and Brunner [2012] x ---------Topaloglu [2006] x --------- -x ---x -------- Beaulieu et al [2000] --x -----------Bowers et al [2016] x -x x ---------- Bruni and Detti [2014] -x ------------ Brunner and Edenharter [2011] -------------x Brunner et al [2009] -------------x Brunner et al [2011] -------------x Carrasco [2010] x x ------------Carter and Lapierre…”

“…Appendix C. Assessment of planning horizon, shift types, personnel characteristics, performance measures, and constraints found in the surveyed Physician Scheduling Problem papers Appendix C. Assessment of planning horizon, shift types, personnel characteristics, performance measures, and constraints found in the surveyed Physician Scheduling Problem papers Appendix C. Assessment of planning horizon, shift types, personnel characteristics, performance measures, and constraints found in the surveyed Physician Scheduling Problem papers Appendix C. Assessment of planning horizon, shift types, personnel characteristics, performance measures, and constraints found in the surveyed Physician Scheduling Problem papers Appendix C. Assessment of planning horizon, shift types, personnel characteristics, performance measures, and constraints found in the surveyed Physician Scheduling Problem papers 154 Bard et al [2013] x x x x --x x x x -- Bard et al [2014] x x --x x x x --x x Bard et al [2016] x x --x x x x --x x Baum et al [2014] x ---x -x -x ---Beaulieu et al [2000] x ---x -x --x --Bowers et al [2016] x x -x x x x -x ---Bruni and Detti [2014] x -x -x -x -x x x -Brunner and Edenharter [2011] x -x -x -x --x --Brunner et al [2009] x -----x x -x --Brunner et al [2011] x x ----x --x --Carrasco [2010] x x ----x --x --Carter and Lapierre [2001] x -----x -x x --Cohn et al [2009] x ---x -x -x x --Day et al [2006] x ---x -x -----Elomri et al [2015] x --------x x -Ferrand et al [2011] x x x -x x -x x ---Fügener et al [2015] x -x -x x x --x --Gendron et al [2005] x x ----x -x x --Güler [2013] x -----x --x -- Güler et al [2013] x x x x x x x --x x x Gunawan and Lau [2010] x ------x -x x -Gunawan and Lau [2013] x ---x ----x --Hidri and Labidi [2016] x -x -x -x -----Huang et al [2016] x -x ---x --x -- Kazemian et al [2014] x ---x -x -x ---Lo and Lin [2011] x x ---x x --x --PUC-Rio -Certificação Digital Nº 1521900/CA Appendix C. Assessment of planning horizon, shift types, personnel characteristics, performance measures, and constraints found in the surveyed Physician Scheduling Problem papers 155 Rosocha et al [2015] x x x x x x x --x x -Savage et al [2015] x ------x ----Shamia et al [2015] x -------x ---Sherali et al…”