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Adapting GA to solve a novel model for operating room scheduling problem with endogenous uncertainty
Publication date: Available online 5 March 2018Source: Operations Research for Health CareAuthor(s): F. Hooshmand, S.A. MirHassani, A. AkhaveinAbstractThis paper addresses a new variant of the daily operating room scheduling problem in which, surgeries have stochastic durations, and in order to get a more flexible schedule, the initial scheduling and the rescheduling decisions are simultaneously considered within a single optimization model. The main point in the formulation of this problem is that the time of the uncertainty realization is decision dependent and hence, the uncertainty is of endogenous nature which is a ne...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 10, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

Iterative conceptual modeling: A case study in cardiac patient survival simulation
Publication date: Available online 9 March 2018Source: Operations Research for Health CareAuthor(s): Roger McHaney, Iris Reychav, Lin Zhu, Megan McHaney Lindstrom, Yaron ArbelAbstractIterative conceptual modeling techniques were used to abstract a computer model of emergency department patient characteristics from a medical dataset. This research effort focused on unbalanced medical data then developed and defined a simulation of cardiac patient survival. The approach focused on desired real-world outcomes for the model. Specifically, iterative conceptual modeling ensured alignment between real-world needs and model develo...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 10, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

Streamlining pathways for minor injuries in emergency departments through radiographer-led discharge
In this study, we model patient pathways through an emergency department (ED) at a hospital in the South West of England using process mapping, interviews with ED staff and discrete event simulation (DES). The DES model allowed us to compare the current practice at the hospital with scenarios using radiographer-led discharge of patients directly after imaging and assess the reduction in patients’ length of stay in ED. We also quantified trade-offs between the provision of radiographer-led discharge and its effects, i.e. reduction in waiting times and ED workload. Finally, we discuss how this decision support tool can be ...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 10, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

Shelf-space optimization models in decentralized automated dispensing cabinets
Publication date: Available online 5 April 2018Source: Operations Research for Health CareAuthor(s): Nazanin Esmaili, Bryan A. Norman, Jayant RajgopalAbstractWe propose a mixed integer programming (MIP) model to help clinicians store medications and medical supplies optimally in space-constrained, decentralized Automated Dispensing Cabinets (ADCs) located on hospital patient floors. We also propose a second MIP model that addresses human errors associated with the selection of pharmaceuticals from floor storage, and not only selects the best set of medications for storage but also determines their optimal layout within the...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 10, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

Duty rostering for physicians at a department of orthopedics and trauma surgery
Publication date: Available online 5 April 2018Source: Operations Research for Health CareAuthor(s): Clemens ThielenAbstractThis paper presents a case study of duty rostering for physicians at a department of orthopedics and trauma surgery. We provide a detailed description of the rostering problem faced and present an integer programming model that has been used in practice for creating duty rosters at the department for more than a year. Using real world data, we compare the model output to a manually generated roster as used previously by the department and analyze the quality of the rosters generated by the model over ...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 10, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

Multi-dose vial administration with non-stationary demand and delayed service
Publication date: Available online 6 April 2018Source: Operations Research for Health CareAuthor(s): Maryam Mofrad, Lisa M. Maillart, Bryan A. Norman, Jayant RajgopalAbstractTo vaccinate patients arriving to clinics in remote locations, clinicians reconstitute vials containing multiple doses of lyophilized vaccines, but often only partially use the vials by the end of the vaccination session. The unused doses are discarded and termed “open vial waste”. Current practice is typically to vaccinate all patients as long as there is inventory on-hand, which results in significant open vial waste. Previous work on determining...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 10, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

A case study of nonlinear programming approach for repeated testing of HIV in a population stratified by subpopulations according to different risks of new infections
Publication date: Available online 9 April 2018Source: Operations Research for Health CareAuthor(s): Ping Yan, Fan ZhangAbstractMotivated by the vision of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS that 90% of people living with HIV will be diagnosed by year 2020, we present an optimization framework regarding repeated testing of an infectious disease which is transmitted unevenly in the population. A subset of HIV surveillance data in Canada with detailed and compatible variables is pooled for statistical analysis. The study population is Men having Sex with Men (MSM) in Canada from the pooled data. Estimated paramete...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 10, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

Evaluating the impact of optimization algorithms for patient transits dispatching using discrete event simulation
We present a set of algorithms with varying complexity, ranging from simple heuristics to the use of critical path methods to combine mixed integer formulations for the separated orderly and nurse problems. To address a transit service’s stochasticity, volatility and the resulting need for constant re-optimization, we embed the optimization algorithms in a discrete event simulation to evaluate their performance under realistic circumstances. (Source: Operations Research for Health Care)
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 10, 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 2018Source: Operations Research for Health CareAuthor(s): Line Ravnskjær Kroer, Karoline Foverskov, Charlotte Vilhelmsen, Aske Skouboe Hansen, Jesper LarsenAbstractIn 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 consideratio...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 10, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

Supporting healthy route choice for commuter cyclists: The trade-off between travel time and pollutant dose
Publication date: Available online 14 April 2018Source: Operations Research for Health CareAuthor(s): Judith Y.T. Wang, Kim N. Dirks, Matthias Ehrgott, Jon Pearce, Alan K.L. CheungAbstractCyclists form the most vulnerable road user group in terms of injury from traffic accidents, as well as exposure to traffic-related air pollution. Ironically, commuter cyclists are often motivated by improvement in health and fitness. Cycleways away from traffic with lower concentrations of pollutants from motorised vehicles sometimes result in longer distances and hence require longer travel times, while alternative routes sharing the ro...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 10, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

A systematic approach for designing Bayesian-lot quality assurance sampling plans
Publication date: Available online 5 May 2018Source: Operations Research for Health CareAuthor(s): Belmiro P.M. DuarteAbstractDesign strategies using Bayesian-Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (B-LQAS) monitoring plans for vaccination coverage and disease eradication typically assume a model with prior information of the parameters. One of the goals B-LQAS plans is finding the minimum sample size so that the characteristics of the risk curve meet user-specified requirements; however, there is no systematic approach to find such optimal B-LQAS plans to date. This paper formulates the problem as a mixed integer linear program a...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 10, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

A resilient donor arrival policy for blood
This study introduces a new methodology for calling blood donors by integrating perishability and dual sourcing. It is shown that the proposed donor-arrival policy could replace the current procedure, which requires frequent adjustments to the number of calls. We show that both donor-arrival (current and proposed) policies could decrease shortages and wastages of blood, while only the proposed policy allows a longer lead-time for arrivals and planning operations, and could significantly increase the blood center’s resilience to errors made in forecasting. The proposed policy is also shown to be more effective than existi...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 10, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

An iterative method for simultaneously locating trauma centers and helicopters through the planning horizon
This study addresses the problem of simultaneously locating trauma centers and helicopters during the planning horizon. Motivated by a prior study (Cho et al., 2014), we extend the location model into a multi-period location model by introducing an additional decision point: when to locate. Because the original location model is known to be quite difficult given its unique characteristic, in which trauma centers and helicopter locations are coupled, a location model with time-dependent parameters becomes even more difficult to solve. Specifically, the complicated nature of the problem arises from estimating the availabilit...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 10, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

Editorial Board
Publication date: June 2018Source: Operations Research for Health Care, Volume 17Author(s): (Source: Operations Research for Health Care)
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 10, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

Operational research applied to health services: Finding better health-care decisions in new oceans of health data
Publication date: June 2018Source: Operations Research for Health Care, Volume 17Author(s): Fermin Mallor, Sally Brailsford, Marion Rauner, Cristina Azcarate (Source: Operations Research for Health Care)
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 10, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research