This literature review sought to identify the role of Operations Research and Management (OR-and-OM) in the Healthcare Systems (HS) decision/policy making processes that have undergone a remarkable transformation when faced with pandemics, especially during the COVID-19 era. In this study, we investigate OR models and OM techniques that facilitate clinical decision-making with short- and long-term … Read more
Many states in the U.S. have faced shortages of medical resources because of the surge in the number of patients suffering from COVID-19. As many projections indicate, the situation will be far worse in coming months. The upcoming challenge is not only due to the exponential growth in cases but also because of inherent uncertainty … Read more
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many countries to their knees, and the urgency to return to normalcy has never been greater. Epidemiological models, such as the SEIR compartmental model, are indispensable tools for, among other things, predicting how pandemic may spread over time and how vaccinations and different public health interventions could affect the outcome. … Read more
In this paper, we present the online tool salaplanejada.unifesp.br developed to assist the layout planning of classrooms considering the social distance in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We address both the allocation problem in rooms where seats are fixed as well as the problem in rooms where seats can be moved freely. For the … Read more
This paper addresses a real-life personnel scheduling problem in the context of Covid-19 pandemic, arising in a large Italian pharmaceutical distribution warehouse. In this case study, the challenge is to determine a schedule that attempts to meet the contractual working time of the employees, considering the fact that they must be divided into mutually exclusive … Read more
Early large-scale swab testing is a fundamental tool for health authorities to assess the prevalence of a virus and enact appropriate mitigation measures during an epidemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that the availability of chemical reagents required to carry out the tests is often a bottleneck in increasing a country’s testing capacity. Further, demand … Read more
We present a stochastic optimization model for allocating and sharing a critical resource in the case of a pandemic. The demand for different entities peaks at different times, and an initial inventory for a central agency is to be allocated. The entities (states) may share the critical resource with a different state under a risk-averse … Read more
Healthcare facilities are struggling in fighting the spread of COVID-19. While machines needed for patients such as ventilators can be built or bought, healthcare personnel is a very scarce resource that cannot be increased by hospitals in a short period. Furthermore, healthcare personnel is getting sick while taking care of infected people, increasing this shortage … Read more