TY - JOUR
T1 - A queueing model for bed-occupancy management and planning of hospitals
AU - Gorunescu, F
AU - McClean, SI
AU - Millard, PH
PY - 2002/1
Y1 - 2002/1
N2 - The aim of this paper is, on the one hand, to describe the movement of patients through a hospital department by using classical queueing theory and, on the other hand, to present a way of optimising the use of hospital resources in order to improve hospital care. A queueing model is used to determine the main characteristics of the access of patients to hospital, such as mean bed occupancy and the probability that a demand for hospital care is lost because all beds are occupied. Moreover, we present a technique for optimising the number of beds in order to maintain an acceptable delay probability at a sufficiently low level and, finally, a way of optimising the average cost per day by balancing costs of empty beds against costs of delayed patients.
AB - The aim of this paper is, on the one hand, to describe the movement of patients through a hospital department by using classical queueing theory and, on the other hand, to present a way of optimising the use of hospital resources in order to improve hospital care. A queueing model is used to determine the main characteristics of the access of patients to hospital, such as mean bed occupancy and the probability that a demand for hospital care is lost because all beds are occupied. Moreover, we present a technique for optimising the number of beds in order to maintain an acceptable delay probability at a sufficiently low level and, finally, a way of optimising the average cost per day by balancing costs of empty beds against costs of delayed patients.
UR - http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jors
M3 - Article
VL - 53
SP - 19
EP - 24
JO - Journal of the Operational Research Society
JF - Journal of the Operational Research Society
SN - 0160-5682
IS - 1
ER -