Modelling the requirement for supplementary nurses in an intensive care unit

J D Griffiths (), N Price-Lloyd, M Smithies and J E Williams
Additional contact information
J D Griffiths: University of Wales
N Price-Lloyd: University of Wales
M Smithies: University Hospital of Wales
J E Williams: University of Wales

Journal of the Operational Research Society, 2005, vol. 56, issue 2, 126-133

Abstract: Abstract The intensive care unit (ICU) of a hospital is an essential yet costly resource. Consequently, intensive care modelling has become increasingly prevalent in recent years in attempts to increase efficiency and reduce costs. Previous models have usually assumed that the numbers of beds available are restricted; when all beds are occupied, any additional patients are referred elsewhere or elective surgeries are cancelled. In this study, activities at the ICU at a large teaching hospital were modelled using data relating to all admissions to the ICU during the year 2000—a total of 1084 admissions. The unit is unusual in that the majority of patients referred for intensive care therapy are admitted. Bed numbers are increased when necessary to cope with demand. However, nurses are a restricted resource. In order to maintain the required nurse:patient ratio of at least one:one, supplementary nurses are employed during busy periods. Supplementary nurse costs are substantial and so nurse utilization must be closely monitored. The development of a model that calculates the required number of supplementary nurses per shift, and also encapsulates the time-dependent nature of elective surgery admissions and complex duration-of-stay profiles, is presented in this paper. In particular, the model is used to determine the number of rostered nurses that are required to minimize overall nursing staff costs.

Keywords: simulation; health; hospitals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2601882 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:jorsoc:v:56:y:2005:i:2:d:10.1057_palgrave.jors.2601882

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... search/journal/41274

DOI: 10.1057/palgrave.jors.2601882

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the Operational Research Society is currently edited by Tom Archibald and Jonathan Crook

More articles in Journal of the Operational Research Society from Palgrave Macmillan, The OR Society
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().