A two phase approach based on multi-objective programming and simulation for physician scheduling in emergency rooms

Scheduling hospital staff is a complex problem because of the wide fluctuations in demand and staffing needs. Physician scheduling in an emergency room (ER) is the one that is most complex and crucial since it requires not only economic and patient perspectives but also the social needs of physicians. Thus, the working conditions and preferences of physicians should be considered in planning their schedules. This study aims to develop an approach for scheduling physicians in an ER to provide better conditions for physicians and, a qualified and reachable healthcare service to the patients. A multi-objective mathematical model is developed to ensure Pareto optimal solutions considering not only economic aspects but also social aspects including the physician preferences and balancing the workload. A Monte Carlo simulation is used to determine the best schedule among Pareto optimal solutions obtained from the mathematical model and deal with the fluctuations in demand. The approach is applied with real world data.