Scheduling surgical patients is one of the complex organizational tasks hospitals face daily. Master surgical scheduling is one way to optimize utilization of scarce resources and to create a more predictable outflow from the operating room towards subsequent hospital departments.
The paper addresses two aims. First, we investigate the effect of the length of the planning horizon and other planning parameters in a master surgical scheduling approach on patients ́ waiting time, schedule stability and hospital efficiency. Second, the master surgical scheduling approach is compared with a standard operating room planning approach on levelled bed occupancy.
The assignment of patients to a master surgical schedule is carefully described. Using real case data from a regional hospital i
