Assignment of patients within a hospital department: case of pediatric department of Hedi Chaker Sfax hospital

Public hospitals in Tunisia are facing significant challenges, such as patient overload and assignment issues, stemming from overcrowding and prolonged wait times. These challenges are closely linked to increased mortality, decreased satisfaction among patients and staff, and inefficient utilization of hospital resources. Patient assignment is a complex task influenced by triage procedures and the dynamic availability of personnel and material resources. This research focused on a real-life case study to address issues related to patient assignment in the emergency, pediatric, and pediatric resuscitation departments of Hedi Chaker Hospital in Sfax, Tunisia. To address these challenges, a comprehensive programming formulation was developed with the aim of maximizing patient allocation while optimizing the allocation of doctors and nurses, all while respecting procedural constraints and staff availability. This integrated approach includes methods such as the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), an algorithm using the Python programming language, to optimize patient assignment, workload balancing, and overall improvement in hospital resource management.