IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jmathe/v11y2023i9p2219-d1142224.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Data-Driven Decision-Making Model for Configuring Surgical Trays Based on the Likelihood of Instrument Usages

Author

Listed:
  • Ehsan Ahmadi

    (Stetson-Hatcher School of Business, Mercer University, Atlanta, GA 30341, USA)

  • Dale T. Masel

    (Department of Engineering Education, College of Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA)

  • Seth Hostetler

    (Enterprise Supply Chain Services, Geisinger Health, Danville, PA 17822, USA)

Abstract

In order to perform a surgical procedure, substantial numbers of sterile instruments should be readily available to surgeons through the containers referred to as surgical trays and peel packs. After the procedure, all instruments in the opened containers, regardless of whether they have been used or not, must go through the labor-intensive re-sterilization process. Empirical studies have shown that the utilization rate of instruments within trays is very low due to not having optimized tray configurations. Additionally, surgical trays often include instruments that are not likely to be used but are included “just in case”, which imposes an additional cost on hospitals through unnecessary instrument re-sterilization. This study is the first analytical attempt to address the issue of configuring surgical trays based on the likelihood of instrument usage through formulating and solving a probabilistic tray optimization problem (PTOP). The PTOP model can serve as a decision support for surgeons by providing them with the tray’s probability of being used for optimally configured trays and its associated reprocessing costs. The PTOP is constructed upon an integer non-linear programming model. A decomposition-based heuristic and metaheuristic method coupled with two novel local search algorithms are developed to solve the PTOP. The application of this model can be illustrated through a case study. We discuss how hospitals could benefit from our model in reducing the costs associated with opening trays unnecessarily before a procedure. Additionally, we conducted a risk analysis to estimate the level of confidence for the recommended solution.

Suggested Citation

  • Ehsan Ahmadi & Dale T. Masel & Seth Hostetler, 2023. "A Data-Driven Decision-Making Model for Configuring Surgical Trays Based on the Likelihood of Instrument Usages," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-26, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:11:y:2023:i:9:p:2219-:d:1142224
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/11/9/2219/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/11/9/2219/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Reymondon, Francis & Pellet, Bertrand & Marcon, Eric, 2008. "Optimization of hospital sterilization costs proposing new grouping choices of medical devices into packages," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(1), pages 326-335, March.
    2. Dollevoet, Twan & van Essen, J. Theresia & Glorie, Kristiaan M., 2018. "Solution methods for the tray optimization problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 271(3), pages 1070-1084.
    3. Mladenovic, Nenad & Brimberg, Jack & Hansen, Pierre & Moreno-Perez, Jose A., 2007. "The p-median problem: A survey of metaheuristic approaches," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 179(3), pages 927-939, June.
    4. Ehsan Ahmadi & Dale T. Masel & Seth Hostetler & Reza Maihami & Iman Ghalehkhondabi, 2020. "A centralized stochastic inventory control model for perishable products considering age-dependent purchase price and lead time," TOP: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 28(1), pages 231-269, April.
    5. Joris Klundert & Philippe Muls & Maarten Schadd, 2008. "Optimizing sterilization logistics in hospitals," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 23-33, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kim E. van Nieuwenhuizen & Teun van Trier & Herman J. Friedericy & Frank Willem Jansen & Jenny Dankelman & Anne C. van der Eijk, 2024. "Optimising Surgical Instrument Trays for Sustainability and Patient Safety by Combining Actual Instrument Usage and Expert Recommendations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-11, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Amogh Bhosekar & Sandra Ekşioğlu & Tuğçe Işık & Robert Allen, 2023. "A discrete event simulation model for coordinating inventory management and material handling in hospitals," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 320(2), pages 603-630, January.
    2. Dollevoet, Twan & van Essen, J. Theresia & Glorie, Kristiaan M., 2018. "Solution methods for the tray optimization problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 271(3), pages 1070-1084.
    3. Adam Diamant & Joseph Milner & Fayez Quereshy & Bo Xu, 2018. "Inventory management of reusable surgical supplies," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 439-459, September.
    4. Behrooz Alizadeh & Somayeh Bakhteh, 2017. "A modified firefly algorithm for general inverse p-median location problems under different distance norms," OPSEARCH, Springer;Operational Research Society of India, vol. 54(3), pages 618-636, September.
    5. Tao Zhuolin & Zheng Qingjing & Kong Hui, 2018. "A Modified Gravity p-Median Model for Optimizing Facility Locations," Journal of Systems Science and Information, De Gruyter, vol. 6(5), pages 421-434, October.
    6. Michael Brusco & Douglas Steinley, 2015. "Affinity Propagation and Uncapacitated Facility Location Problems," Journal of Classification, Springer;The Classification Society, vol. 32(3), pages 443-480, October.
    7. Joshua Q. Hale & Enlu Zhou & Jiming Peng, 2017. "A Lagrangian search method for the P-median problem," Journal of Global Optimization, Springer, vol. 69(1), pages 137-156, September.
    8. Angel Juan & Javier Faulin & Albert Ferrer & Helena Lourenço & Barry Barrios, 2013. "MIRHA: multi-start biased randomization of heuristics with adaptive local search for solving non-smooth routing problems," TOP: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 21(1), pages 109-132, April.
    9. Azam Modares & Nasser Motahari Farimani & Farzad Dehghanian, 2025. "A new replenishment policy based on product age for blood inventory management considering blockchain," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 1-55, June.
    10. Campos Rodrí­guez, Clara M. & Moreno Pérez, José A., 2008. "Multiple voting location problems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 191(2), pages 437-453, December.
    11. Snežana Tadić & Mladen Krstić & Željko Stević & Miloš Veljović, 2023. "Locating Collection and Delivery Points Using the p -Median Location Problem," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-17, February.
    12. Carrizosa, Emilio & Ramírez-Ayerbe, Jasone & Romero Morales, Dolores, 2024. "Mathematical optimization modelling for group counterfactual explanations," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 319(2), pages 399-412.
    13. Zhen, Lu & Gao, Jiajing & Tan, Zheyi & Laporte, Gilbert & Baldacci, Roberto, 2023. "Territorial design for customers with demand frequency," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 309(1), pages 82-101.
    14. Corinna Heßler & Kaouthar Deghdak, 2017. "Discrete parallel machine makespan ScheLoc problem," Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, Springer, vol. 34(4), pages 1159-1186, November.
    15. Ma, Yuze & Han, Xu & Zhang, Ting & Li, Ang & Song, Zhicheng & Li, Tao & Wang, Yongli, 2024. "Research on station-network planning of electricity-thermal -cooling regional integrated energy system considering multiple-load clusters and network costs," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 297(C).
    16. Brecht Cardoen & Jeroen Beliën & Mario Vanhoucke, 2015. "On the design of custom packs: grouping of medical disposable items for surgeries," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(24), pages 7343-7359, December.
    17. Pablo Adasme & Ali Dehghan Firoozabadi, 2019. "Facility Location with Tree Topology and Radial Distance Constraints," Complexity, Hindawi, vol. 2019, pages 1-29, November.
    18. Gerald Oeser & Pietro Romano, 2021. "Exploring risk pooling in hospitals to reduce demand and lead time uncertainty," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 78-94, June.
    19. Vladimir Marianov & Daniel Serra, 2009. "Median problems in networks," Economics Working Papers 1151, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    20. Francesco Bonavolontà & Vincenzo Caragallo & Alessandro Fatica & Annalisa Liccardo & Adriano Masone & Claudio Sterle, 2021. "Optimization of IEDs Position in MV Smart Grids through Integer Linear Programming," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-16, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:11:y:2023:i:9:p:2219-:d:1142224. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.