Two-stage robust optimization approach to elective surgery and downstream capacity planning

Scheduling elective surgeries is a complicated task due to the coupled effects of multiple sources of uncertainty and the impact of the proposed schedule on the downstream units. In this paper, we propose a two-stage robust optimization model to address the existing uncertainty in surgery duration and length-of-stay in the surgical intensive care unit. The framework allows for the decision-maker to adjust the level of risk with which she/he is comfortable. We propose the adapted column-and-constraint generation method to obtain exact solutions for the proposed formulation. The performance and the quality of our proposed solution methodology are tested through computational experiments and simulation modeling.