Master surgical scheduling can improve manageability and efficiency of operating room departments. This approach cyclically executes a master surgical schedule of surgery types. These surgery types need to be constructed with low variability to be efficient. Each surgery type is scheduled based upon its frequency per cycle. Surgery types that cannot be scheduled repetitively are put together in...

In1995,Drs.Frankl in Dexter and John Tinker published a manuscript on decreasing the cost of care in the postanesthesia care unit (1). Over the following 11 yr, Dr. Dexter has published nearly 100 manuscripts on using mathematical and statistical approaches to optimizing the management of operating rooms. In the process, Dr. Dexter and his frequent collaborators, have defined a new intellectual...

UNLABELLED We studied when allocated, but unfilled, operating room (OR) time of surgical services should be released to maximize OR efficiency. OR time was allocated for two surgical suites based on OR efficiency. Then, we analyzed real OR schedules. We added new hypothetical cases lasting 1, 2, or 3 h into OR time of the service that had the largest difference between allocated and scheduled c...