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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 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 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research

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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 2018 Category: Hospital Management Source Type: research