On the Optimal Staffing of Surgeons and Efficient Scheduling of Surgeries

Abstract

It is well-known that the demand for services at many if not all hospitals is variable over a given year such that the demand is significantly higher in some months compared to the rest of the months in any given year. This is especially true for surgical departments at many hospitals. Therefore, it is a challenge to staff the surgical departments in such a way that the demand for surgeries throughout a year is met without creating significant over- or under-staffing at any point in a given year. In other words, an optimal level of staffing is sought so that the staff is not significantly over- or under- utilized at any point in a given year. In this paper, we consider an algorithmic approach of arriving at such an optimal level of staffing given some practical constraints. We apply this approach to the surgery department of the paying section of the Aravind Eye Hospital in Madurai, India.