Applying operations research to improve resource utilisation in a cardiac surgical service.
Published: 2006
Language: eng
Number of pages: 67
ISBN-13: 9780494212943
Description: In Ontario, waiting times for cardiac surgery have attracted attention from the public and the media because excessive waiting times might put patient's health at risk. One potential solution to reduce waiting times for surgery is to improve utilisation of operating rooms because they are often the bottleneck in surgical processes. This paper applies operations research techniques to improve utilisation of operating rooms by helping hospital managers plan operating room scheduling. A discrete-event simulation model was built to model the cardiac surgical patient flow at Hamilton Health Sciences Centre. The model was developed in an iterative manner, actively engaging stakeholders throughout the process, and it has been successfully integrated into the decision-making process. Using the model, the stakeholders found an operating room schedule and a set of operating room scheduling policies that will help them to achieve their surgical volume target with reasonable cancellation rates, using limited available resources.
Notes: Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-03, page: 1666.

Thesis (M.A.Sc.)--University of Toronto, 2006.

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