Taxonomic classification of planning decisions in health care: a review of the state of the art in OR/MS

We provide a structured overview of the typical decisions to be made in resource capacity planning and control in health care, and a review of relevant OR/MS articles for each planning decision. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, to position the planning decisions, a taxonomy is presented. This taxonomy provides health care managers and OR/MS researchers with a method to identify, break down and classify planning and control decisions. Second, following the taxonomy, for six health care services, we provide an exhaustive specification of planning and control decisions in resource capacity planning and control. For each planning and control decision, we structurally review the key OR/MS articles and the OR/MS methods and techniques that are applied in the literature to support decision making

Selecting the best locations for data centers in resilient optical grid/cloud dimensioning

For optical grid/cloud scenarios, the dimensioning problem comprises not only deciding on the network dimensions (i.e., link bandwidths), but also choosing appropriate locations to install server infrastructure (i.e., data centers), as well as determining the amount of required server resources (for storage and/or processing). Given that users of such grid/cloud systems in general do not care about the exact physical locations of the server resources, a degree of freedom arises in choosing for each of their requests the most appropriate server location. We will exploit this anycast routing principle (i.e., source of traffic is given, but destination can be chosen rather freely) also to provide resilience: traffic may be relocated to alternate destinations in case of network/server failures. In this study, we propose to jointly optimize the link dimensioning and the location of the servers in an optical grid/cloud, where the anycast principle is applied for resiliency against either link or server node failures. While the data center location problem has some resemblance with either the classical p-center or k-means location problems, the anycast principle makes it much more difficult due to the requirement of link disjoint paths for ensuring grid resiliency

Nursing care time in the Intensive Care Unit: evaluation of the parameters proposed in COFEN Resolution Nº 293/04

O estudo teve por objetivo avaliar os parâmetros preconizados pela Resolução COFEN nº293/04, enquanto referência para o dimensionamento de pessoal de Enfermagem em e Terapia Intensiva Adulto (UTIA). A pesquisa foi desenvolvida em seis hospitais da cidade de São Paulo. Os quantitativos médios diários de profissionais, necessários para o atendimento dos pacientes, foram calculados conforme parâmetros preconizados pelo COFEN. Os resultados obtidos foram comparados ao quantitativo diário de pessoal existente nessas unidades. Observou-se que as proporções recomendadas pelo COFEN, para a categoria enfermeiro, são superiores às utilizadas pelos hospitais estudados, configurando-se em um desafio para a Enfermagem brasileira. Constatou-se que os valores referentes aos tempos médios de assistência são adequados e constituem importante referencial para o dimensionamento do quantitativo mínimo de profissionais, nas UTIAs. Com este estudo, evidenciaram-se contribuições para a validação dos parâmetros indicados pela Resolução COFEN nº293/04, para o dimensionamento de pessoal de Enfermagem em UTIA.Este estudio tuvo como objetivo evaluar los parámetros establecidos por la Resolución COFEN 293/04, referencia para dimensionamiento de personal de enfermería en unidades de cuidados intensivos adultos (UCIA). La investigación se realizó en seis hospitales de la ciudad de São Paulo. La cantidad media diaria de profesionales necesarios para la asistencia al paciente se calculó de acuerdo a los parámetros establecidos por COFEN. Los resultados se compararon al cuantitativo diario de personal existente en estas Unidades. Se observó que las proporciones recomendadas por COFEN, categoría enfermera, son superiores a las utilizadas por los hospitales convirtiéndose desafío para la enfermería brasileña. Se encontró que los valores del tiempo medio de asistencia son adecuadas y representan importante referencia para el dimensionamiento del cuantitativo mínimo de profesionales en UCIA. Este estudio evidencia contribuciones para validación de los parámetros especificados en la Resolución COFEN 293/04, para el dimensionamiento del personal de enfermería en UCIA.This study aimed to evaluate the parameters established in COFEN Resolution 293/04 concerning nursing staff dimensioning in adult intensive care units (AICU). The research was conducted in six hospitals in São Paulo City. The daily quantitative average of professionals needed for patient care was calculated according to the parameters established by COFEN. The obtained results were compared with the existing number of daily staff members in these units. It was observed that the proportions recommended by COFEN for the nurse category are superior to those used in the hospitals studied, which represents a challenge for Brazilian nursing. Mean care time values were found appropriate and represent important standards for dimensioning the minimum number of professionals in AICU. This study contributed to the validation of the parameters indicated in Resolution 293/04 for nursing staff dimensioning in the AICU

PATIENT CLASSIFICATION AND NURSING STAFF DIMENSIONING IN A PEDIATRIC INPATIENT UNIT

Objective: to describe the implementation of the Patient Classification System and the dimensioning of the nursing staff in a pediatric inpatient unit.Method: a descriptive, cross-sectional, and retrospective study, carried out at a university hospital in the Midwest of Brazil. After the implementation of the Pediatric Patient Classification System, we compiled data from the classifications of the level of care complexity (N=4,639) among patients (n=608) admitted from January to December 2019. Descriptive statistical analysis was employed, including proprietary methodology for staff sizing.Results: there was a prevalence of intermediate care patients. According to the staff dimensioning, there was a surplus (+10) of mid-level workers, and the projected number of nurses (six) was compatible with the available number.Conclusion: the strategic implementation/employment of the Patient Classification System was indispensable for the pediatric nursing staffing forecast, considering that the staffing surplus found should be appreciated with caution

The 4-year Experience of Nursing Activities Score Use in a Brazilian Cardiac Intensive Care Unit

The assessment of nursing workload offers both support for patient care planning and service management. In an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) this workload is measured by the Nursing Activities Scores (NAS), although in specialized areas such as Cardiology, its use is still diminished. Objective: To describe NAS and the prevalence of its sub-items in a Brazilian Cardiac ICU. We also aimed to evaluate NAS oscillation since the opening of the unit, and according to the day of the week. Methods: Daily NAS records collected from November 2014 to October 2018 were assessed, totaling 8600 assessments distributed over 49 months. The data were analyzed according to time, day of the week, number of records per day, and dichotomizing if NAS was higher or lower than 50 points. Results: NAS presented mean value of 52.91 points and a median of 53.40 points. The mean NAS values per month ranged from 45.00 to 59.10 points. The percentage of NAS assessments above 50 points ranged from 20.59 to 92.34% per month and proved to be a better indicator for assessing the variability of the monthly workload. When combined two by two, 66.01% of NAS combinations scored more than 100 points, suggesting the need for more than one nursing professional per day. When the data were stratified by year, 2018 had the lowest means compared to the others. When compared to the mean values in function of the day of the week, it was observed that Monday to Friday (with the highest mean on Wednesday, the predominant day for cardiac surgeries) showed higher values than weekends. Conclusions: Overall, NAS showed low values compared to other general or cardiac ICUs, it also presented temporal variability and our results showed risk of workload overload which can compromise patient care and safety. Such results reinforce the importance of the administrative and assistant aspects of the routine use of NAS in ICUs specially in specialized environments as Cardiac ICU

Evaluating the intervening factors in patient safety: focusing on hospital nursing staff

OBJECTIVE To evaluate intervening factors in patient safety, focusing on hospital nursing staff. METHOD The study is descriptive, with qualitative approach, excerpt from a larger study with analytical nature. It was undertaken in a public hospital in Fortaleza, CE, Brazil, between January and June 2013, with semi-structured interviews to 70 nurses, using Thematic Content Analysis. RESULTS The principal intervening factors in patient safety related to hospital nursing staff were staff dimensioning and workload, professional qualification and training, team work, being contracted to the institution, turnover and lack of job security, and bad practice/disruptive behaviors. These aspects severely interfere with the establishment of a safety culture in the hospital analyzed. CONCLUSION It is necessary for managers to invest in nursing staff, so that these workers may be valued as fundamental in the promotion of patient safety, making it possible to develop competences for taking decisions with focus on the improvement of quality care.OBJETIVO Avaliar fatores intervenientes na segurança do paciente, com enfoque na equipe de Enfermagem hospitalar. MÉTODO Estudo descritivo, com abordagem qualitativa, recorte de pesquisa de maior abrangência de caráter analítico. Desenvolveu-se em um hospital público de Fortaleza, CE, Brasil, entre janeiro a junho de 2013, por meio entrevistas semiestruturadas com 70 enfermeiros assistenciais, empregando-se Análise de Conteúdo Temática. RESULTADOS Os principais fatores intervenientes na segurança do paciente relacionados à equipe de Enfermagem encontrados foram: dimensionamento de pessoal e carga de trabalho; formação e capacitação profissional; trabalho em equipe; vínculo empregatício, rotatividade e falta de estabilidade; má prática/comportamentos destrutivos. Tais aspectos interferem sobremaneira no estabelecimento da cultura de segurança na instituição analisada. CONCLUSÃO São necessários investimentos, por parte dos gestores, nos recursos humanos de Enfermagem, para que estes trabalhadores sejam valorizados como fundamentais na promoção da segurança do paciente, possibilitando o desenvolvimento de competências para a tomada de decisão com foco na melhoria da qualidade assistencial.OBJETIVO Evaluar los factores intervinientes en la seguridad del paciente, con énfasis en el equipo de Enfermería hospitalaria. MÉTODO Estudio descriptivo, con abordaje cualitativo, recorte de investigación de mayor alcance de carácter analítico. Se desarrolló en un hospital público de Fortaleza, CE, Brasil, entre enero y junio de 2013, por medio de entrevistas semiestructuradas con 70 enfermeros asistenciales, empleándose el Análisis de Contenido Temático. RESULTADOS Los principales factores intervinientes en la seguridad del paciente relacionados con el equipo de Enfermería encontrados fueron: dimensionamiento de personal y carga laboral; formación y capacitación profesional; trabajo en equipo; vínculo de empleo, rotatividad y falta de estabilidad; mala práctica/comportamientos destructivos. Dichos aspectos interfieren demasiado en el planteamiento de la cultura de seguridad de la institución analizada. CONCLUSIÓN Son necesarias inversiones, por parte de los gestores, en los recursos humanos de Enfermería, para que se valoren esos trabajadores como fundamentales en la promoción de la seguridad del paciente, posibilitando el desarrollo de competencias para la toma de decisiones con énfasis en la mejoría de la calidad asistencial

Joint dimensioning of server and network infrastructure for resilient optical grids/clouds

We address the dimensioning of infrastructure, comprising both network and server resources, for large-scale decentralized distributed systems such as grids or clouds. We design the resulting grid/cloud to be resilient against network link or server failures. To this end, we exploit relocation: Under failure conditions, a grid job or cloud virtual machine may be served at an alternate destination (i.e., different from the one under failure-free conditions). We thus consider grid/cloud requests to have a known origin, but assume a degree of freedom as to where they end up being served, which is the case for grid applications of the bag-of-tasks (BoT) type or hosted virtual machines in the cloud case. We present a generic methodology based on integer linear programming (ILP) that: 1) chooses a given number of sites in a given network topology where to install server infrastructure; and 2) determines the amount of both network and server capacity to cater for both the failure-free scenario and failures of links or nodes. For the latter, we consider either failure-independent (FID) or failure-dependent (FD) recovery. Case studies on European-scale networks show that relocation allows considerable reduction of the total amount of network and server resources, especially in sparse topologies and for higher numbers of server sites. Adopting a failure-dependent backup routing strategy does lead to lower resource dimensions, but only when we adopt relocation (especially for a high number of server sites): Without exploiting relocation, potential savings of FD versus FID are not meaningful

Tempo de assistência de enfermagem em unidade de terapia intensiva adulto e indicadores de qualidade assistencial: análise correlacional

Un estudio de enfoque cuantitativo, de correlación y descriptiva, elaborado con objetivo de analizar el tiempo empleado por equipo de enfermería para asistir pacientes hospitalizados en Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos de Adultos y verificar su correlación con indicadores de calidad de la atención. La identificación del promedio de tiempo de cuidados y de indicadores de calidad asistencial fue realizada por medio de consulta a las herramientas de gestión utilizadas por el jefe de enfermería de la Unidad. El promedio de tiempo de cuidado ministrado a los pacientes se mantuvo equilibrado, pero inferior a los indicados por organismos oficiales en Brasil. La correlación entre tiempo de cuidados de enfermería e indicador de incidencia extubación accidental indicó que esta disminuye con aumento de tiempo de atención de enfermería utilizado por enfermeras. Los resultados de esta investigación demuestran la influencia del tiempo de atención de enfermería por las enfermeras, en los resultados de la atención prestada.Trata-se de studo de abordagem quantitativa, correlacional e descritivo, elaborado com o objetivo de analisar o tempo utilizado pela equipe de Enfermagem para assistir aos pacientes internados em unidade de terapia intensiva adulto, bem como verificar sua correlação com os indicadores de qualidade assistencial. A identificação do tempo médio de assistência despendido e dos indicadores de qualidade assistencial foi efetivada por meio de consulta aos instrumentos de gestão, utilizados pela chefia de Enfermagem da unidade. O tempo médio de assistência despendido com os pacientes manteve-se equilibrado, porém, inferior aos indicados pelos órgãos oficiais brasileiros. A correlacão entre o tempo de assistência de Enfermagem despendido por enfermeiros e o indicador incidência de extubação acidental indicou que a incidência de extubação acidental diminui, à medida que aumenta o tempo de assistência de Enfermagem despendido por enfermeiros. Os resultados desta investigação demonstram a influência do tempo de assistência de Enfermagem, provido por enfermeiros, no resultado do cuidado ministrado.The objective of this quantitative, correlational and descriptive study was to analyze the time the nursing staff spends to assist patients in Adult Intensive Care Units, as well as to verify its correlation with quality care indicators. The average length of time spent on care and the quality care indicators were identified by consulting management instruments the nursing head of the Unit employs. The average hours of nursing care delivered to patients remained stable, but lower than official Brazilian agencies' indications. The correlation between time of nursing care and the incidence of accidental extubation indicator indicated that it decreases with increasing nursing care delivered by nurses. The results of this investigation showed the influence of nursing care time, provided by nurses, in the outcome of care delivery

Integral resource capacity planning for inpatient care services based on hourly bed census predictions

The design and operations of inpatient care facilities are typically largely historically shaped. A better match with the changing environment is often possible, and even inevitable due to the pressure on hospital budgets. Effectively organizing inpatient care requires simultaneous consideration of several interrelated planning issues. Also, coordination with upstream departments like the operating theater and the emergency department is much-needed. We present a generic analytical approach to predict bed census on nursing wards by hour, as a function of the Master Surgical Schedule (MSS) and arrival patterns of emergency patients. Along these predictions, insight is gained on the impact of strategic (i.e., case mix, care unit size, care unit partitioning), tactical (i.e., allocation of operating room time, misplacement rules), and operational decisions (i.e., time of admission/discharge). The method is used in the Academic Medical Center Amsterdam as a decision support tool in a complete redesign of the inpatient care operations

Comparación entre la gravedad del paciente y la carga de trabajo de la enfermería antes y después de la ocurrencia de eventos adversos en ancianos con cuidados críticos

Indexación: Scopus.Objective: to compare the patient severity and the nursing workload before and after the occurrence of moderate and severe adverse events in elderly hospitalized at intensive care units. Method: comparative study developed at nine intensive therapy units of a University Hospital in São Paulo. The events were collected from the patient histories and classified as moderate and severe according to the World Health Organization. For the severity analysis, the Simplified Acute Physiologic Score II was used and, for the workload analysis, the Nursing Activities Score was applied 24 hours before and after the moderate and severe event. The t-test with 5% significance was used to compare the mean clinical severity and workload scores before and after the event. Results: the sample consisted of 315 elderly, 94 (29.8%) of whom were victims of moderate and severe events at the units. Among the 94 events, the clinical process and procedure type was predominant (40.0%). The installation and maintenance of therapeutic artifacts and catheters were the prevalent interventions that resulted in moderate (76.5%) physiopathological damage (66.0%). The mean workload score (75.19%) dropped 24 hours after the occurrence of the event (71.97%, p=0.008), and the severity, represented by the probability of death, increased from 22.0% to 29.0% after the event (p=0.045). Conclusion: in the patient safety context, the identification of the changes in clinical conditions and the nursing workload in elderly victims of events supports the prevention of these occurrences. © 2018, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. All rights reserved.Objetivo: comparar a gravidade do paciente e a carga de trabalho de enfermagem antes e após a ocorrência de evento adverso moderado e grave em idosos internados em unidades de terapia intensiva. Método: estudo comparativo, realizado em nove unidades de terapia intensiva de um Hospital Universitário de São Paulo. Os eventos foram coletados dos prontuários dos pacientes e classificados em moderados e graves segundo a Organização Mundial de Saúde. A análise da gravidade foi realizada segundo o Symplified Acute Phsiologic Score II e a carga de trabalho segundo o Nursing Activities Score, 24 horas antes e depois do evento moderado e grave. O teste t, com significância de 5%, foi utilizado para a comparação das médias da gravidade clínica e da carga de trabalho, antes e após o evento. Resultados: a amostra foi composta por 315 idosos, sendo que 94 (29,8%) sofreram eventos moderados e graves nas unidades. Dos 94 eventos, predominou o tipo processo clínico e procedimento (40,0%). A instalação e manutenção de artefatos terapêuticos e cateteres foram as intervenções prevalentes que resultaram em danos fisiopatológicos (66,0%), de grau moderado (76,5%). A média de pontuação da carga de trabalho (75,19%) diminuiu 24 horas após a ocorrência do evento (71,97%, p=0,008) e, a gravidade, representada pela probabilidade de morte, aumentou de 22,0% para 29,0% depois do evento (p=0,045). Conclusão: no contexto da segurança do paciente, a identificação das alterações nas condições clínicas e na carga de trabalho de enfermagem em idosos que sofrem eventos subsidiam a prevenção dessas ocorrências.Objetivo: comparar la gravedad del paciente y la carga de trabajo en enfermería antes y después de ocurrir un evento adverso moderado y grave en ancianos internados en unidades de terapia intensiva. Método: estudio comparativo realizado en nueve unidades de terapia intensiva de un Hospital Universitario de São Paulo. Los eventos fueron obtenidos a través de los prontuarios de los pacientes y clasificados en moderados y graves según la Organización Mundial de la Salud. El análisis sobre la gravedad fue realizado de acuerdo al Symplified Acute Physiologic Score II y la carga de trabajo se hizo conforme al Nursing Activities Score, 24 horas antes y después del evento moderado y grave. El test t, con una significancia del 5%, fue utilizado para la comparación de los promedios de la gravedad clínica y de la carga de trabajo antes y después del evento. Resultados: la muestra incluyó 315 ancianos, siendo que 94 (29,8%) sufrieron eventos moderados y graves en las unidades. De los 94 eventos, predominó el tipo de proceso clínico y el procedimiento (40,0%). La instalación y mantenimiento de artefactos terapéuticos y catéteres fueron las intervenciones prevalentes que resultaron en daños fisiopatológicos (66,0%) y de grado moderado (76,5%). El promedio de puntuación de la carga de trabajo (75,19%) disminuyó 24 horas después de ocurrido el evento (71,97%, p=0,008) y la gravedad, representada por la probabilidad de muerte, aumentó de 22,0% para 29,0% después del evento (p=0,045). Conclusion: en el contexto de seguridad del paciente, la identificación de las alteraciones en las condiciones clínicas y en la carga de trabajo de enfermería en los ancianos que sufren eventos subsidia la prevención de tales ocurrencias.http://ref.scielo.org/wcg6x