Automate and optimize operating room scheduling
Every hospital has a system that records which case goes into which room. Almost none has anything that decides which case should go there, in what order, staffed by whom. Let's solve that.
One solve assigns every case to a room, an order and a team
Timefold solves case assignment, sequencing and staffing as one optimization problem. Surgical privileges, anesthesia ratios, equipment and turnover are enforced as hard constraints, so every schedule is compliant before it reaches the OR. When a case overruns, the remaining day is replanned around the work already committed.
Where Timefold goes beyond legacy scheduling software
Four things decide whether an OR day works. Timefold bakes them into the engine, guaranteeing compliant schedules every time.
Regulatory rules stay unbreakable
Surgical privileges, anesthesia ratios, and supervision limits are built-in hard rules. Every schedule is guaranteed compliant before it ever reaches the OR.
The day reflows around a late case
When a surgery runs long, the model instantly replans the rest of the day in real time, protecting committed cases and flagging downstream delays while you still have time to fix them.
Staffing is solved with the schedule
Case schedules and staff rosters are solved simultaneously. Procedures are only booked where qualified nursing and anesthesia coverage actually exists.
Block policy becomes measurable
Simulate block allocations against real utilization before you commit, and let the system automatically release unused block time at your deadline horizon.
Hand-built schedules shouldn't run the most expensive room in the hospital
The OR carries a large share of a hospital's revenue and its operating cost, and a manual schedule spends both.
Estimated cost of one OR minute
An empty room bills nothing and still costs this.
Ideal room utilization
Most fall below that, wasting money on empty ORs.
Turnover between unlike cases
Grouping similar surgeries cuts this delay, making turnover a scheduling choice.
Cases get rescheduled
Usually because a case ran longer than the schedule predicted, and the rest of the day inherited it.
Constraints the model expresses today
Case duration and sequencing
Order cases against their expected duration, so start and end times follow from the sequence and an overrun is absorbed instead of cascading.
Room capability
Place each case in a room able to support that procedure.
Surgeon privileges and availability
Assign a case only to a surgeon credentialed for that procedure and free at that hour.
Anesthesia and nursing rosters
Book procedures only where qualified anesthesia and nursing coverage exists, inside the supervision limits that apply.
Equipment and instrument trays
Hold the equipment and instrument trays a procedure needs, and avoid overlap when they are shared between rooms.
Turnover and cleaning time
Reserve the cleaning and setup time each transition needs, and group similar surgeries to cut it.
Priority and waiting-time targets
Bring urgent and long-waiting cases forward before elective work fills the day.
FAQ
Do you have questions? We have answers.
A slot board treats every room-hour as independent. In reality a case can only start when the surgeon, the anesthetist, a circulator, a scrub, the room and the equipment are all free at once, and when the case in front of it has finished. Change one sequence and the feasible options downstream change with it. That is a constraint problem, not a data-entry problem.
Block allocation and daily sequencing are two different problems on two different clocks. Blocks are negotiated seasonally and rarely revisited. The day is built case by case against whoever is actually rostered. Optimizing the day tells you what your block policy is really costing you.
Scheduling needs procedure, duration, required resources and constraints. It does not need names, addresses or clinical history. Cases can be referenced by an internal identifier only, which keeps the dataset to the minimum the task requires.
Cases with their procedure type and expected duration, the rooms and their capabilities, surgeon privileges and availability, anesthesia and nursing rosters with supervision limits, equipment and instrument trays, turnover and cleaning times, and any priority or waiting-time targets. The output is an assignment and an order, with start and end times derived from the sequence.
You replan, you do not rebuild. The remaining cases are reassigned around what has already started, holding committed work in place so the theatre is not handed a completely different day at 11am. Delay propagation is visible while there is still time to act on it.
Roughly 75% to 85% of allocated block time is the working band. Chasing 100% does not buy you capacity. It buys cancellations, overtime and staff attrition, because there is no slack left to absorb the case that ran long.
When scheduling works, everything works.
Less waste. More control. Teams that trust the plan.