A Simple Stochastic Model for Facility Planning in a Mental Health Care System

Stephen C. Graves, H. Stephen Leff, Judith Natkins and Michael Senger
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Stephen C. Graves: Alfred P. Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
H. Stephen Leff: Laboratory for the Study of Community Support Systems, Cambridge Hospital Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
Judith Natkins: Laboratory for the Study of Community Support Systems, Cambridge Hospital Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
Michael Senger: Laboratory for the Study of Community Support Systems, Cambridge Hospital Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

Interfaces, 1983, vol. 13, issue 5, 101-110

Abstract: General hospital (GH) psychiatric units are increasingly being used as alternatives to public mental hospitals (PHs). Although “back-of-the-envelope” calculation predicted that each bed in a new GH unit would reduce the census at the PH by 1.5 to 2 patients, our more careful analysis, involving a simple stochastic model, showed that this effect was much less. The model accurately predicts census levels for all but chronic patients, and has since been used by local and state planners.

Keywords: queues: applications; facilities/equipment planning; health care: hospitals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1983
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:orinte:v:13:y:1983:i:5:p:101-110

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