IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/orinte/v55y2025i4p344-359.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Overbooking Surgical Blocks

Author

Listed:
  • Christopher T. B. Strömblad

    (Center for Surgical Science, Zealand University Hospital, 4600 Køge, Denmark)

  • Upasana Raval

    (American Airlines, Fort Worth, Texas 76155)

  • Kristy Zhou

    (Department of Strategy & Innovation, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York 10065)

  • Shok-Jean Yee

    (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York 10065)

  • Thomas C. Barber

    (University of San Francisco Medical Center, San Francisco, California 94143)

  • Martin R. Weiser

    (Department of Surgery, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York 10065)

Abstract

Operating rooms (ORs) are some of the most expensive and critical resources for hospitals, and therefore OR access and utilization are of high importance. We developed a unique method to overbook surgeon blocks: assigning more OR block time than we have OR capacity available, to improve OR access. The challenge lies in managing the process of overbooking and ensuring fairness so that no one surgeon is more affected by overbooking compared with others. Using mixed-integer quadratic programming, we enable block overbooking while applying a consistent definition of fairness. This effort was implemented into routine operations through our simplified process, and it was deployed as a web tool for the surgical staff to manage and communicate decisions. Overbooking blocks contributed an additional 2% and 3.5% to OR utilization at the two campuses where it was deployed. This work enables surgeons, scheduling managers, and surgical leadership to manage operating room use beyond physical capacity, reliably and optimally.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher T. B. Strömblad & Upasana Raval & Kristy Zhou & Shok-Jean Yee & Thomas C. Barber & Martin R. Weiser, 2025. "Overbooking Surgical Blocks," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 55(4), pages 344-359, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orinte:v:55:y:2025:i:4:p:344-359
    DOI: 10.1287/inte.2023.0063
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/inte.2023.0063
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/inte.2023.0063?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:inm:orinte:v:55:y:2025:i:4:p:344-359. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    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.