Improving the Flow of Patients Through Healthcare Organizations

Steven M. Thompson (), Robert Day () and Robert Garfinkel ()
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Steven M. Thompson: University of Richmond
Robert Day: University of Connecticut
Robert Garfinkel: University of Connecticut

Chapter Chapter 7 in Handbook of Healthcare Operations Management, 2013, pp 183-204 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Healthcare organizations face a challenging operational environment characterized by uncertain demand, the need to deliver highly complex and specialized services, and increasing pressure to provide better quality care to more patients at lower total cost. Healthcare organizations invest substantial financial resources into the human, technological, and structural assets needed to provide a wide range of healthcare services. Determining how much capacity is made available, how that capacity is allocated to patients, and how various specialized units in the organization coordinate their activities are important drivers of performance. In particular, healthcare organizations continuously evaluate the flow of patients through the organization as different healthcare services are provided. If patients do not flow smoothly through the healthcare delivery process, either due to inadequate capacity or the inefficient use of capacity, then patient satisfaction and quality of care can suffer. This chapter provides an overview of the concept of patient flow as one measure of the quality and effectiveness of healthcare delivery, examines some of the most significant challenges to improving patient flow, provides an overview of prior operations research related to patient flow, and discusses current factors that are driving future research opportunities.

Keywords: Healthcare Service; Emergency Medical Service; Vertical Integration; Discrete Event Simulation; Patient Flow (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4614-5885-2_7

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