Health care management science
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We describe an ambulance location optimization model that minimizes the number of ambulances needed to provide a specified service level. The model measures service level as the fraction of calls reached within a given time standard and considers response time to be composed of a random delay (prior to travel to the scene) plus a random travel time. In addition to modeling the uncertainty in the delay and in the travel time, we incorporate uncertainty in the ambulance availability in determining the response time. ⋯ By explicitly modeling the randomness in the ambulance availability and in the delays and the travel times, we arrive at a more realistic ambulance location model. Our model is tractable enough to be solved with general-purpose optimization solvers for cities with populations around one Million. We illustrate the use of the model using actual data from Edmonton.
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Health Care Manag Sci · Sep 2008
Operating room management and operating room productivity: the case of Germany.
We examine operating room productivity on the example of hospitals in Germany with independent anesthesiology departments. Linked to anesthesiology group literature, we use the ln(Total Surgical Time/Total Anesthesiologists Salary) as a proxy for operating room productivity. ⋯ Our empirical analysis links improved operating room productivity to greater operating room capacity, appropriate scheduling behavior and management methods to realign interests. From this analysis, the enforcing jurisdiction and avoiding advance over-scheduling appear to be the implementable tools for improving operating room productivity.