The objective of this award is to develop models and study the downstream patient flow processes from the perspective of in-hospital staffing decisions for the escort staff. Queuing models will be developed using real life operational data. These models will be used to estimate the properties of the waiting time incurred by a patient, while waiting for transfer to an in-hospital unit from the emergency department. The waiting time properties will be used in an optimization model that will determine the staffing level. The optimization model will incorporate quality of service constraints. Solution techniques for solving this optimization model will be developed.
If successful, the results of this research will lead to improvements in modeling and solution techniques for making shift staffing decisions in the emergency department patient transfer process. The primary goal of this work is to determine the right number of escort staff at the emergency department during a shift. Determining the right number of escort staff will reduce patient admission delays resulting from the unavailability of an escort staff, when required for patient transport. Reducing patient admission delays will free up capacity in the emergency department, which will improve patient safety in emergency departments that run at near capacity. This work will also help reduce the overall patient care cost due to more effective utilization of resources, and contribute to developing new modeling methods and computational tools available for staffing problems.
