Goal programming. An approach to solving the physician scheduling problem

By Léon Gerardo Kreis

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject Business economics - Operations Research, grade: 1,0, University of Augsburg, language: English, abstract: In order to get insights on the extent to which it can contribute to research in the field of physician scheduling, this thesis will evaluate the effectivity of the approach by Gharbi, Louly and Azaiez (2017) to solving the physician scheduling problem (PSP) at an ED in Saudi Arabia to optimality. Their model optimizes the monthly rosters at the mentioned facility considering three aspects: isolated days on, isolated days off, and night blocks (which means trying to assign all night shifts in only one block per physician).The model is to be examined considering performance in general, stability, and overstaffing. Furthermore, relations between model attributes are analyzed and the model is evaluated using an original data set as well as two scenarios with a reduced staff size. Drawing a conclusion, the model performs well considering the goals stated in the objective function as well as stability and runtime but reveals a deficit considering the appropriate staff size for the medical facility. The consistently growing and highly volatile demand for medical services stresses the relevance of physician scheduling. A state of the art in physician scheduling is provided by Erhard et al. (2018) who discovered physician and resident scheduling receiving increasing attention in recent years. Simultaneously, research lacks behind at the creation of schedules that include break assignment and/or consider a stochastic demand pattern. This concludes in a deficit in research regarding the assignment of physicians on a short-term basis as well as the coverage of unanticipated peaks in demand for medical services.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 3668871167
• ISBN13: 9783668871168
• Release Date: February 2019
• Publisher: Grin Verlag
• Length: 64 Pages
• Weight: 0.21 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 5.8" x 8.3"