Managing Downstream Patient Flow Processes Using Improved Coordination and Staffing

该奖项的目的是从护送人员在医院内的人员配置决策的角度来开发模型和研究下游患者流动过程。排队模型将使用现实生活中的运营数据来开发。这些模型将被用来估计病人在等待从急诊科转到医院单元时所花费的等待时间的性质。等待时间属性将用于确定人员配备水平的优化模型中。优化模型将包含服务质量约束。将开发用于求解该优化模型的求解技术。如果成功，这项研究的结果将导致在急诊科患者转移过程中制定轮班人员配备决策的建模和解决方案技术的改进。这项工作的主要目标是确定轮班期间急诊科护送人员的正确数量。确定适当数量的护送人员将减少由于护送人员在需要运送病人时造成的病人入院延误。减少病人入院延迟将释放急诊科的能力，这将改善接近饱和的急诊科的病人安全。这项工作还将有助于通过更有效地利用资源来降低总体患者护理成本，并有助于开发可用于人员配备问题的新建模方法和计算工具。

The objective of this award is to develop models and study the downstream patient flow processes from the perspective of in-hospital staffing decisions for the escort staff. Queuing models will be developed using real life operational data. These models will be used to estimate the properties of the waiting time incurred by a patient, while waiting for transfer to an in-hospital unit from the emergency department. The waiting time properties will be used in an optimization model that will determine the staffing level. The optimization model will incorporate quality of service constraints. Solution techniques for solving this optimization model will be developed. If successful, the results of this research will lead to improvements in modeling and solution techniques for making shift staffing decisions in the emergency department patient transfer process. The primary goal of this work is to determine the right number of escort staff at the emergency department during a shift. Determining the right number of escort staff will reduce patient admission delays resulting from the unavailability of an escort staff, when required for patient transport. Reducing patient admission delays will free up capacity in the emergency department, which will improve patient safety in emergency departments that run at near capacity. This work will also help reduce the overall patient care cost due to more effective utilization of resources, and contribute to developing new modeling methods and computational tools available for staffing problems.