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Queue length computation of time-dependent queueing networks and its application to blood collection
The objective of the results is twofold: (1) to show that the time-dependent queueing network approach is imperative for some queueing networks, including this application and (2) to evaluate possible improvement scenarios for Dutch blood collection sites that can only be properly assessed with a time-dependent queueing method. (Source: Operations Research for Health Care)
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 10, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

An integrated Emergency Care Delivery System for major events
The objective of this paper is to evaluate the Emergency Care Delivery System of the city of Rio de Janeiro in view of recent urban and natural disasters that are happening everywhere and to support the organizer Committee of RIO 2016 Olympic Games. The goal is to discuss the effectivity of an intelligent decision support system that involves three public agencies: The Control Centre of the ambulance service, the Municipal Traffic Engineering Company and the Centre for Internal Regulation of public hospitals. The model is based upon the information flow focusing on the high complexity patients. The emergency care delivery ...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 10, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

Home health-care network design: Location and configuration of home health-care centers
This article accomplishes two main objectives: (i) design a home health-care network by locating HHC centers across a territory, taking into account medical demand and costs of resources and facilities; (ii) optimally manage the activities of HHC centers by deciding on the outsourcing of critical processes for patient care. Two mixed-integer linear programs are proposed to solve these problems and propose strategic and tactical decisions. A practical case study is proposed on the Loire department (France) with various scenarios to test the robustness of the model depending on demand variation. The proposed method gives e...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 10, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

Discrete event simulation model for planning Level 2 “step-down” bed needs using NEMS
Publication date: June 2018Source: Operations Research for Health Care, Volume 17Author(s): F. Rodrigues, G.S. Zaric, D.A. StanfordAbstractIn highly congested hospitals it may be common for patients to overstay at Intensive Care Units (ICU) due to blockages and imbalances in capacity. This is inadequate clinically, as patients occupy a service they no longer need; operationally, as it disrupts flow from upstream units; and financially as ICU beds are more expensive than ward beds. Step-down beds, also known as Level 2 beds, have become an increasingly popular and less expensive alternative to ICU beds to deal with this iss...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 10, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

A successive LP approach with C-VaR type constraints for IMRT optimization
Publication date: June 2018Source: Operations Research for Health Care, Volume 17Author(s): Shogo Kishimoto, Makoto YamashitaAbstractIn this paper, we propose a successive linear programming (LP) approach for an intensity-modulated radiotherapy treatment (IMRT) optimization. The use of IMRT enables to control the beam intensities accurately and gives more flexibility for cancer treatment plans, but finding a feasible plan that satisfies all dose-volume constraints (DVCs) requires expensive computation cost. Romeijn et al. (2003) replaced the DVCs with C-VaR (conditional Value-at-Risk) type constraints, and successfully red...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 10, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

Applying Gravity model to predict demand of public hospital beds
Publication date: June 2018Source: Operations Research for Health Care, Volume 17Author(s): Kiok Liang Teow, Kelvin Bryan Tan, Hwee Pin Phua, Zhecheng ZhuAbstractSingapore is an urban country of about 700 km2 with a total population of 5.6 million. In 2015, Ng Teng Fong General Hospital (NTFGH) became the 7th public acute general hospital to provide multi-disciplinary acute inpatient, specialist outpatient clinic services (SOC) and a 24-hour emergency department (ED). To prepare for increasing inpatient demand resulting from aging and population growth, Singapore has planned for two more public hospitals to be ready by 201...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 10, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

Local search heuristics for a surgical case assignment problem
Publication date: June 2018Source: Operations Research for Health Care, Volume 17Author(s): Catarina Mateus, Inês Marques, M. Eugénia CaptivoAbstractThis work is part of an ongoing project with a Portuguese public hospital, where the elective surgeries scheduling problem is studied. The administration of the hospital aims to achieve the targets set by the Portuguese Ministry of Health for surgical production and to ensure a surgical service with a high level of efficiency. However, hospitals do not have an elective surgeries scheduling system, so the surgeries are unsystematically scheduled and without respecting equity ...
Source: Operations Research for Health Care - July 10, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research