The allocation of surgeries to operating rooms (ORs) is a challenging combinatorial optimization problem. There is also significant uncertainty in the duration of surgical procedures, which further complicates assignment decisions. In this article, we present stochastic optimization models for the assignment of surgeries to ORs on a given day of surgery. The objective includes a fixed cost of o...

Due to the great importance of operating rooms in hospitals, this paper studies an operating room scheduling problem with open scheduling strategy. According to this strategy, no time slot is reserved for a particular surgeon. The surgeons can use all available time slots. Based on Fei et al.’s model which is considered to be close to reality, we develop a heuristic algorithm to solve it. The i...

Tru-D™ is an automated room disinfection device that uses ultraviolet-C radiation to kill micro-organisms. The device was deployed in six side-rooms and an operating theatre. In a cleaned, unoccupied operating theatre, Tru-D eradicated all organisms from the environment. Using artificially seeded Petri dishes with meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, multi-resistant acinetobacter and van...

Evacuating surgical smoke in the operating room protects patients and perioperative teams from hazards associated with inhaling smoke. States have passed bills mandating health care facilities ambulatory surgery centers adopt policies to evacuate We use a 5-step process for identifying options reduce exposure harmful toxins found recommend executive nurse leaders collaborate states professional...