Flexible Shift Planning in the Service Industry (eBook)

The Case of Physicians in Hospitals

Jens O. Brunner (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2010
XI, 117 Seiten
Springer Berlin (Verlag)
978-3-642-10517-3 (ISBN)

Infos

The introductory chapter consists of four sections. In Sect. 1. 1 we reveal the c- rent situation in hospitals that is faced by the management. We address the general issue of personnel scheduling in the service industry in Sect. 1. 2. Then we motivate our research by considering physicians as the scheduling object. In particular, we show the complex nature of physician scheduling in a hospital environment. The focus of the research is presented in Sect. 1. 3. Finally, we conclude the chapter by illustrating the outline of the thesis. 1. 1 General Economic Situation in Hospitals The mounting pressure in the health care industry to reduce costs is forcing hos- tals and related facilities to take a closer look at their staf?ng policies (see [111]). A primary dif?culty in reducing personnel costs, the major component of the budget, is the variability in demand and the need to assign staff to ?xed shifts. Furthermore, government run facilities, especially those in the European Union, are seeing their budgets cut in terms of real dollars despite an aging and more acutely ill patient population (e. g. , see [96]). It has been reported that up to a third of the hospitals in Germanyplan a reductionin staff (see [91]). The schedulingprocess is furtherc- plicated by the generally recognized importance of taking individual preferences intoaccount. Moreattractiveschedulespromotejobsatisfaction,increaseproduct- ity,and reduceturnover(cf. [2]). However,withoutimprovedschedulingprocedures that better match supplyto demand,the level of care that theynow providewill soon become unsustainable. 1.

Inhalt

Contents 6
List of Figures 8
1 Introduction 10
1.1 General Economic Situation in Hospitals 10
1.2 Complexity of Physician Scheduling 10
1.3 Topic of This Research 11
1.4 Outline 12
2 Literature Review on Personnel Scheduling 14
2.1 General Personnel Scheduling 14
2.2 Physician Scheduling 17
2.3 Implicit Shift Modeling 18
2.4 Column Generation and B& P
3 MIP Model for Flexible Shift Scheduling of Physicians 22
3.1 Basic MIP Model 22
3.1.1 Model Description 22
3.1.1.1 Hard Constraints 23
3.1.1.2 Soft Constraints 23
3.1.2 Model Formulation 26
3.2 Model Enhancements 32
3.2.1 On-Call Services 32
3.2.2 Time Window Restrictions 36
3.2.3 Break Assignment 37
3.2.3.1 Break Placement After a Predefined Time Span 37
3.2.3.2 Implicit Break Placement in a Defined Time Interval 38
3.2.3.3 Break Placements When Short Shifts are Considered 40
3.2.4 Holidays and Vacations 41
3.3 Case Study: Anesthetist Scheduling 43
3.3.1 Current Practice 43
3.3.2 Solution of the Model 44
4 Solution Methodologies 47
4.1 Preprocessing 47
4.2 Heuristic Decomposition Strategy 49
4.3 Column Generation and B& P Algorithm
4.3.1 Master Problem Formulation 54
4.3.2 Subproblem Formulation 57
4.3.3 Finding Integer Solutions 62
4.3.4 Branching on MP Variables (MPVarB) 63
4.3.5 Branching on SP Variables (SPVarB) 66
4.3.6 A Dual Point of View 69
4.3.6.1 Dual Space by MPVarB 69
4.3.6.2 Dual Space by SPVarB 70
4.3.7 Heuristics for the B& P Algorithm
4.3.7.1 Initialization Heuristic 71
4.3.7.2 Feasibility Heuristic to Find Integer Solutions 72
4.3.7.3 Rounding Heuristic to Find Integer Solutions 74
4.3.8 Enhancements for the B& P Algorithm
4.3.8.1 Lower Bounds and Early Termination 75
4.3.8.2 Aggregation of Subproblems 78
5 Experimental Investigations 81
5.1 Input Data From MRI 81
5.1.1 Demand Profiles 82
5.1.2 Basic Parameter Settings 87
5.2 Heuristic Decomposition 88
5.2.1 Analysis of Different Model Features 90
5.2.2 Parametric Analysis 92
5.2.2.1 Maximum Shift Length 92
5.2.2.2 Time Window Length 93
5.2.2.3 Number of Physicians 93
5.2.3 Analysis of Instances of Different Sites 94
5.3 B& P Algorithm
5.3.1 Two-Week Problems 100
5.3.2 Four-Week Problems 101
5.3.3 Six-Week Problems 101
5.3.4 General Observations 102
5.4 Comparison of Both Algorithms 102
6 Conclusions and Further Remarks 106
6.1 Summary and Conclusions 106
6.2 Final Remarks and Further Research Directions 108
Appendix 109
A.1 Abbreviations, Notation, and Symbols 109
Bibliography 116

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 7.1.2010
• Reihe/Serie: Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems
• Reihe/Serie: Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems
• Zusatzinfo: XI, 117 p. 25 illus.
• Verlagsort: Berlin
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Mathematik / Informatik ► Mathematik
• Themenwelt: Medizin / Pharmazie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Technik
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Planung / Organisation
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Unternehmensführung / Management
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Volkswirtschaftslehre
• Schlagworte: algorithms • Branch-and-Price • Column Generation • Hospital • Hospitals • Implicit Shift Scheduling • Integer Programming • Physician Scheduling • quality • Scheduling
• ISBN-10: 3-642-10517-3 / 3642105173
• ISBN-13: 978-3-642-10517-3 / 9783642105173