The operating theatre planning by the follow-up of the risk of no realization

In the French context of healthcare expenses control, the operating theatre, that represents 9% of hospital's annual budget. presents a stake of major priority. The realization of the operating theatre planning is the fruit of negotiation of different actors of the block such as surgeons, anesthetists, nurses, managerial staff, etc. whose constraints and interests are often different. In this context, a win-win situation for this partnership (all parties involved) requires a good and constructive negotiation. In this paper, we propose an operating theatre planning procedure that aims at mastering the risk of no realization (RNR) of the tentative plan while stabilizing the operating rooms' utilization time. During the application of this planning, we achieve the follow-up of the RNR and according to its evolution the research of another planning will be proposed in order to reduce the risk level. Finally, we present results obtained by simulations that support the interest for implementing these procedures. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.