Operating room planning and scheduling: Solving a surgical case sequencing problem

Abstract

This text summarizes the PhD dissertation that was defended by the author in January 2009 under the supervision of Erik Demeulemeester at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium). The text is written in English and is available from the author upon request. The PhD dissertation is situated within the health care services domain and studies the impact of planning and scheduling procedures in the operating room. It incorporates an extensive review of both scientific contributions and the current operating room planning and scheduling practices of hospitals in Flanders (Belgium). The emphasis of the research, though, is directed towards the development, the testing and the application of surgery sequencing algorithms in a day-care environment.