Operations Research 2007

 

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Tutorial on

 

Operations Research in Hospitals

 

by

 

Prof. Michael Carter

 

4. September 2007

 

 

Presenter

Michael Carter is Professor in the Dept. of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto and Director of the Healthcare Resource Modelling Lab.

For more than one decade, his research interests have been primarily focused on healthcare resource modelling. He has been involved in a variety of projects in hospitals, home care, rehabilitation, long term care, medical labs, and mental health institutions. Current projects include forecasting waiting lists in Ontario, operating room management and scheduling, allocation of HIV prevention resources, patient flow and capacity modelling, and cancer patient processing.

Prof. Carter has cooperated with a number of hospitals in Toronto including the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, the Toronto Hospital, the Mount Sinai Hospital, and the Hospital for Sick Children.

Prof. Carter is a member of the “Nursing Effectiveness, Utilization and Outcomes Research Unit” and a mentor in the “Health Care, Technology and Place Program” at the University of Toronto. He is also an Adjunct Scientist with the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Toronto.

Prof. Carter is a three time recipient (1988, 1992, 1996) of the Annual Practice Prize from the Canadian Operational Research Society (CORS). In 2000, he received the CORS Award of Merit for lifetime contributions to Canadian Operational Research. He also received an “Excellence in Teaching” Award from the University of Toronto Student Administrative Council. He is a member of the editorial board of the “Journal of Scheduling” and of the journal “Health Care Management Science”.

Operations Research in Hospitals

Health care systems all over the world are in the midst of a serious financial crisis, and the situation will likely get worse in the next few years. Demand is growing as the population ages, health human resources are becoming critical, and costs are increasing as the drugs and technologies continue to get more complex and expensive. Of course, it would help if there were more money available. However, hospitals could be run a lot more efficiently.

Operations Research is the discipline of applying quantitative methods to help make better decisions. Operations Research tools can help hospitals improve quality, reduce costs, improve effectiveness and increase efficiency.

The objective of the tutorial is to introduce a few concepts from Operations Research and quantitative analysis in the health care sector. An overview of some potential areas of application will be provided and illustrated with a variety of techniques including performance measurement, simulation modelling, scheduling, queuing, forecasting and mathematical programming.

 

Program

 

09:00 - 11:00 Introduction: Hospitals within the Health Care System

  • The role of hospitals within the Health Care system

  • The importance of measuring performance

  • Introduction to some measurement techniques: Benchmarking, Balanced Scorecard, Data Envelopment Analysis and Statistical Process Control

11:00-11:15 Coffee break


11:15-12:30 Patient Flow and Simulation Modelling

  • The issues of patient flow within the hospital

  • Introduction to the concept of simulation

  • Examples of using simulation for emergency department flow

  • Two examples of systems dynamics (continuous simulation modelling) to improve patient flow through hospitals

12:30-13:30 Lunch


13:30-15:00 Operating Room Scheduling

  • Introduction to the role of scheduling within a hospital with examples of the impact of poor scheduling practices

  • Examples of operating room scheduling and planning

  • Examples of scheduling a hospital fracture clinic

  • The use of priorities to manage wait lists effectively
     

15:00-15:30 Coffee break
 

15:30-17:00 Introduction to Demand and Capacity Management

  • The importance of understanding the relationship between the available resources in the hospital and the expected demand for service

  • An example using Mathematical Programming as a decision support tool for hospital strategic planning (planned elective surgical case volumes) in the face of budget constraints

  • Forecasting methods to determine future demand and scenario testing

  • The use of queueing models for hospital planning

  • Introduction to capacity planning – How many beds does the hospital actually require by day of week and time of day?

 

Prices

  • GOR member 150€

  • Non-GOR member 400€

Download Flyer

      Flyer for Tutorial
 

Please register at the GOR-Geschäftsstelle:

Frau Bärbel Niedzwetzki
Am Steinknapp 14 b
D-44795 Bochum

Fax: +49 (0)2 34 / 46 22 45
gor@ruhr-uni-bochum.de

 

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