Essays in physician scheduling with a special focus on breaks and flexibility

  • In hospitals, personnel generate the biggest and most important cost. This research handles the physician staffing problem in hospitals on an integrated tactical level by focusing on the investigation of break assignments and flexibility in staffing levels as major objective. In particular, we consider modeling the placement of breaks within shifts to ensure an appropriate approximation for the size of the workforce for demand coverage. Current literature mainly neglects the consideration of breaks whereas practice uses manual planning approaches that are time and cost intensive. Moreover, we evaluate the effect of flexibility on the total labor costs. We formulate mixed-integer programming models. In our experimental study, real world data from a large hospital in Germany is used. Computational results show that the consideration of breaks is highly relevant especially when approximating required personnel capacity in staffing level decisions: Neglecting breaks, even on a highIn hospitals, personnel generate the biggest and most important cost. This research handles the physician staffing problem in hospitals on an integrated tactical level by focusing on the investigation of break assignments and flexibility in staffing levels as major objective. In particular, we consider modeling the placement of breaks within shifts to ensure an appropriate approximation for the size of the workforce for demand coverage. Current literature mainly neglects the consideration of breaks whereas practice uses manual planning approaches that are time and cost intensive. Moreover, we evaluate the effect of flexibility on the total labor costs. We formulate mixed-integer programming models. In our experimental study, real world data from a large hospital in Germany is used. Computational results show that the consideration of breaks is highly relevant especially when approximating required personnel capacity in staffing level decisions: Neglecting breaks, even on a high hierarchical level, leads to a significant underestimation of the number of required physicians particularly under rigid real life assumptions when hardly any flexibility in shift types is provided. Additionally, the integration of flexibility in the scheduling process has an significant effect on the resulting labor costs: The total personnel costs decrease significantly with the degree of flexibility in sequences of working days, shift types, and the assignment of breaks. Therefore, we recommend the consideration of breaks and flexiblity even on an high hierarchical planning level.show moreshow less

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Metadaten
Author:Melanie ErhardORCiD
URN:urn:nbn:de:bvb:384-opus4-521276
Frontdoor URLhttps://opus.bibliothek.uni-augsburg.de/opus4/52127
Advisor:Jens O. Brunner
Type:Doctoral Thesis
Language:English
Year of first Publication:2019
Publishing Institution:Universität Augsburg
Granting Institution:Universität Augsburg, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät
Date of final exam:2019/04/05
Release Date:2019/06/06
Tag:physicians; column generation; flexibility; breaks; hospital; mixed-integer programming
GND-Keyword:Krankenhaus; Personaleinsatz; Erholungspause; Arbeitspause; Flexibilität; Reihenfolgeproblem
Pagenumber:115
Institutes:Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät
Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Betriebswirtschaftslehre
Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Betriebswirtschaftslehre / Lehrstuhl für Health Care Operations / Health Information Management
Dewey Decimal Classification:3 Sozialwissenschaften / 33 Wirtschaft / 330 Wirtschaft
Licence (German):Deutsches Urheberrecht mit Print on Demand