Managing operating room efficiency and responsiveness for emergency and elective surgeries—A literature survey

This paper provides a review and classification of the state of research on the question of how a hospital can best utilize its operating rooms (ORs) to balance efficiency and responsiveness when performing surgeries on scheduled electives and high-priority emergencies. We first provide an overview of the specific research questions and conclusions in the literature, as well as a synthesis of the different types of approaches. Then we classify these approaches by methodology and performance measures considered. We also extend the review to other application domains that face a similar question, and highlight similarities and differences to identify potential learning points that apply to the surgery setting. We anticipate this survey highlights the need for future quantitative research that improves the balance of efficiency and responsiveness in the OR.