Managing Downstream Patient Flow Processes Using Improved Coordination and Staffing

该奖项的目的是开发模型，并从医院内护送人员的人员配置决策的角度研究下游患者流程。 将使用真实的寿命运行数据开发可持续发展模型。 这些模型将被用来估计由病人所产生的等待时间的属性，而等待转移到医院的单位从急诊科。 等待时间属性将用于确定人员配备水平的优化模型中。 优化模型将纳入服务质量约束。 将开发用于解决此优化模型的解决方案技术。 如果成功的话，这项研究的结果将导致改进的建模和解决方案技术，使轮班人员的决策，在急诊科病人转移过程中。 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。 确定护送人员的正确数量将减少因护送人员无法提供而导致的患者入院延迟，当需要运送患者时。 减少病人入院延误将释放急诊科的能力，这将提高急诊科的病人安全。 这项工作也将有助于降低整体病人护理成本，由于更有效地利用资源，并有助于开发新的建模方法和计算工具，可用于人员配置问题。

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.