Fixed capacity expansion involves building new operating rooms, acquiring additional medical equipment, and hiring additional healthcare staff. Fixed capacity expansion is required for hospital growth in the long run and ensures regular capacity to meet future demand $($Krajewski$,$ Malhotra, & Ritzman, $2022).$ Fixed capacity expansion is associated with several disadvantages, such as significant capital outlays, large implementation durations, and potential underutilization during off$-$peak seasons $($Christopher$,2022).$ An advantage of expanding physical capacity is that it improves the hospital's ability to treat more patients permanently. For example, hospitals that expanded operating rooms during the COVID$-19$ pandemic reacted better to surges in critical care patients $($Bowersox$,$ Closs, Cooper, & Bowersox, $2019).$ Infrastructure expansion is$,$ however, accompanied by enormous government spending, regulatory approvals, and increase in workforce, and is therefore a long$-$term solution and not an immediate solution $($Reid & Sanders, $2020).$ Moreover, building out infrastructure is not always the most effective solution, especially in cases of seasonally varying patient demand. With decreased demand, new operating rooms may not fill to capacity when demand is off, leading to inefficient use of resources $($Zhu$,$ Sarkis, & Lai, $2021).$ To counteract this potential risk, the hospital must pursue demand forecasting in order to ensure that capacity expansion addresses long$-$term patient care demands $($Stevenson & Kull, $2024).$