Operations Research for Health Care Operations Research for Health Care RSS feedThis is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

A dynamic simulation–optimization approach for managing mass casualty incidents
We present a generic method consisting of (i) an automated policy for dynamic staff re-allocation at an AMP with arbitrary structure, and (ii) a simulation–optimization approach for optimally parametrizing this automated policy. Three simulation–optimization techniques with two complexity levels are investigated in detail for the purpose of incorporation in our system applied to the Austrian AMP case study: the method by Kiefer–Wolfowitz, the metaheuristic OptQuest approach, and the Response Surface Methodology. Our results show that the optimized automated policies can improve the performance of the AMP compared to ...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 5, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

Assessment of forecasting models for patients arrival at Emergency Department
Publication date: September 2018Source: Operations Research for Health Care, Volume 18Author(s): Miguel Carvalho-Silva, M. Teresa T. Monteiro, Filipe de Sá-Soares, Sónia Dória-NóbregaAbstractThe unpredictability of arrivals to the Emergency Department (ED) of a hospital is a great concern of the management. The existence of more complex pathologies and the increase in life expectancy originate a higher rate of hospitalization. The hospitalization of patients via ED upsets previously programmed services and some cancellations may occur. The Hospital’s ability to predict turnout variations in the arrivals to the ED is ...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 5, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

Editorial Board
Publication date: September 2018Source: Operations Research for Health Care, Volume 18Author(s): (Source: Operations Research for Health Care)
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 5, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

EURO 2016—New advances in health care applications
Publication date: September 2018Source: Operations Research for Health Care, Volume 18Author(s): Inês Marques, Jeroen Beliën, Rosita Guido (Source: Operations Research for Health Care)
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 5, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

A multi-period location-allocation model for nursing home network planning under uncertainty
We present a strategic model in which the improvement of service accessibility through the planning horizon is appropriately addressed. Unlike previous research, the proposed model modifies the allocation pattern to prevent unacceptable deterioration of the accessibility criterion. In addition, the problem is formulated as a covering model in which the capacity of facilities as well as the demand elasticity are considered. The uncertainty in demands within each time period is captured by adopting a distributionally robust approach. The model is then applied to a real case study for nursing home planning network in Shiraz c...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 5, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

A stochastic model to minimize patient waiting time in an emergency department
Publication date: September 2018Source: Operations Research for Health Care, Volume 18Author(s): Dorsaf Daldoul, Issam Nouaouri, Hanen Bouchriha, Hamid AllaouiAbstractThe hospital emergency department (ED), which constitutes a complex system with random demands, is the primary facility for urgent health issues. Overcrowding and the limited resources affect the waiting time of patients in the ED. In this research, we model the healthcare services in the ED of a university hospital in Tunisia. We consider simultaneously six patient queues. The goal is to optimize the human and material resources required to reduce the averag...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 5, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

Cost of surgical site infection in Egyptian University Hospital: Informing a decision to implement an infection control program using simulation
Publication date: September 2018Source: Operations Research for Health Care, Volume 18Author(s): Ghada Ahmed Abu-Sheasha, Omaima Gaber Yassine, Medhat Mohamed Anwar, Ramez Naguib BedwaniAbstractObjectiveTo estimate the cost of surgical site infection in the Medical Research Institute hospital from the patient and hospital perspectives using simulation. The cost was estimated to support a decision on which infection control strategy to implement from strategies with different efficacies and costs.MethodsTwo economic models were developed to estimate the cost of surgical site infection, from hospital and patient perspectives...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 5, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

Optimal control of intervention strategies and cost effectiveness analysis for a Zika virus model
Publication date: September 2018Source: Operations Research for Health Care, Volume 18Author(s): Abdulfatai A. Momoh, Armin FügenschuhAbstractThis paper presents an optimal control strategy and a cost effectiveness analysis for the Zika virus disease. A mathematical model for the transmission of the Zika virus is considered with four preventive measures as control, namely: the use of treated bednets, the use of condoms, a medical treatment of infected persons, and the use of indoor residual spray (IRS). We obtain the reproduction number R0 for the disease and carry out a stability analysis. We observe that the disease’s...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 5, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

Unsupervised neural networks for clustering emergent patient flows
Publication date: September 2018Source: Operations Research for Health Care, Volume 18Author(s): Marina Resta, Michele Sonnessa, Elena Tànfani, Angela TestiAbstractIn recent years, hospitals increasingly faced with a growing proportion of their inpatient admissions coming from the fluctuating demand of emergency admissions. The opportunity to move emergency patients, with a decision to admit, out of an Emergency Department (ED) is linked to the ability of the hospital to actually receive them. Indeed, the growing concern on public budget constraints implies reducing the number of inpatient ward beds making crucial to impr...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 5, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

Block scheduling at magnetic resonance imaging labs
Publication date: September 2018Source: Operations Research for Health Care, Volume 18Author(s): Anders N. Gullhav, Marielle Christiansen, Bjørn Nygreen, Mats M. Aarlott, Jon Erik Medhus, Johan Fredrik Skomsvoll, Per Olav ØstbyhaugAbstractThis paper considers a tactical block scheduling problem at a major Norwegian hospital. Here, specific patient groups are reserved time blocks for scanning at a heterogeneous set of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) labs. The time blocks consist of several time slots, and one or more patients from the same group are scanned in a block. A total weekly number of time slots for each specifi...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 5, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

Demand-point constrained EMS vehicle allocation problems for regions with both urban and rural areas
Publication date: September 2018Source: Operations Research for Health Care, Volume 18Author(s): Martin van Buuren, Rob van der Mei, Sandjai BhulaiAbstractGovernments deal with increasing health care demand and costs, while budgets are tightened. At the same time, ambulance providers are expected to deliver high-quality service at affordable cost. Maximum reliability and minimal availability models guarantee a minimal performance level at each demand point, in contrast to the majority of facility location and allocation methods that guarantee a minimal performance that is aggregated over the entire ambulance region. As a c...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 5, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

Is the hospital lean? A mathematical model for assessing the implementation of lean thinking in healthcare institutions
Publication date: September 2018Source: Operations Research for Health Care, Volume 18Author(s): Gopalakrishnan Narayanamurthy, Anand GurumurthyAbstractMany academic and practice articles have been published in healthcare operations management literature documenting the experience of implementing lean thinking (LT) in healthcare institutions. But, none of them have developed a procedure for assessing the implementation of LT in healthcare institutions. Lack of assessment procedures make it difficult to evaluate the progress made during the implementation of LT. The current study attempts to address this gap by developing a...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 5, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

Improving same-day access in primary care: Optimal reconfiguration of appointment system setups
Publication date: September 2018Source: Operations Research for Health Care, Volume 18Author(s): Matthias SchachtAbstractA concept for the optimal configuration and capacity allocation for appointment systems in primary care is presented. It is designed to provide decision-support for primary care clinics to cope with seasonal variations in patient load in order to assure a high accessibility to health care services. The central aspect of the concept is a stochastic MILP for the determination of an appointment scheduling setup configuration, which is defined by the allocation of walk-in and pre-scheduled appointment blocks...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 5, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

A new sequential approach for chemotherapy treatment and facility operations planning
The objective of the developed models is to minimize the number of cancerous cells at the end of a planning horizon, idle/over staff working time and patients’ treatment delay. The results give the optimum starting days for new patients which achieve the best treatment plan. (Source: Operations Research for Health Care)
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 5, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

Planning and scheduling operating rooms for elective and emergency surgeries with uncertain duration
Publication date: Available online 14 April 2018 Source:Operations Research for Health Care Author(s): Line Ravnskjær Kroer, Karoline Foverskov, Charlotte Vilhelmsen, Aske Skouboe Hansen, Jesper Larsen In this paper we investigate the planning of operating rooms at Rigshospitalet, a large Danish hospital. Each operation must be assigned to a specific operating room and also be scheduled for a specific time while taking into account clinical guidelines. Both elective and emergency operations are included, such that the elective operations are planned while still taking potential emergency operations into considerati...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - April 15, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research