Application of staff rostering algorithms for emergency departments: protocol for a systematic review
Abstract
Introduction: Emergency departments (EDs) operate under conditions of high demand, uncertainty and resource constraints, making efficient personnel rostering a critical component of healthcare delivery. Poorly designed staff schedules may contribute to increased waiting times, staff burnout, reduced quality of care and inefficient use of resources. Operations research (OR) methods, including mathematical programming, heuristics, metaheuristics and simulation-based optimisation, have been widely applied to workforce scheduling problems in healthcare. However, the specific application of these methods to rostering and shift scheduling of ED personnel (eg, nurses and physicians) has not yet been systematically synthesised. This systematic review aims to identify, categorise and analyse OR algorithms used for rostering ED personnel, and to examine their modelling approaches, optimisation techniques and reported outcomes.
Methods and analysis: This systematic review will follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. A comprehensive search will be conducted from database inception to the final search date in Google Scholar, Web of Science, MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus and ABI/Inform, with no start-date restriction. A provisional search was run on 20 March 2026; the final search will be updated before completion of study selection. Results will be restricted to articles published in English, French, Spanish or Italian. The search…
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