Health care management science
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Health Care Manag Sci · Jun 2001
Comparative StudyModeling and analysis of multistate access to elective surgery.
In this paper, we attempt to determine whether delays in scheduling operation affect waiting time in a queue for elective surgery. We analyze the waiting-list management system in a Canadian hospital. ⋯ For certain sources of delays, the admission rate was 50-60% lower compared with the rate for admissions without a delay independent of urgency of surgical intervention. Our findings support a concern that waiting time for elective surgery is not simply determined by how many patients are on the waiting list, or by how urgently they need treatment, but also by the waiting list management practice.
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Health Care Manag Sci · Jun 2001
Towards decision support for waiting lists: an operations management view.
This paper considers the phenomenon of waiting lists in a healthcare setting, which is characterised by limitations on the national expenditure, to explore the potentials of an operations management perspective. A reference framework for waiting list management is described, distinguishing different levels of planning in healthcare--national, regional, hospital and process--that each contributes to the existence of waiting lists through managerial decision making. In addition, different underlying mechanisms in demand and supply are distinguished, which together explain the development of waiting lists. ⋯ This is illustrated by the modelling of the demand for cataract treatment in a regional setting in the south-eastern part of the Netherlands. An input-output model was developed to support decisions regarding waiting lists. The model projects the demand for treatment at a regional level and makes it possible to evaluate waiting list impacts for different scenarios to meet this demand.