5 research outputs found
Multicriteria Optimization Techniques for Understanding the Case Mix Landscape of a Hospital
Various medical and surgical units operate in a typical hospital and to treat
their patients these units compete for infrastructure like operating rooms (OR)
and ward beds. How that competition is regulated affects the capacity and
output of a hospital. This article considers the impact of treating different
patient case mix (PCM) in a hospital. As each case mix has an economic
consequence and a unique profile of hospital resource usage, this consideration
is important. To better understand the case mix landscape and to identify those
which are optimal from a capacity utilisation perspective, an improved
multicriteria optimization (MCO) approach is proposed. As there are many
patient types in a typical hospital, the task of generating an archive of
non-dominated (i.e., Pareto optimal) case mix is computationally challenging.
To generate a better archive, an improved parallelised epsilon constraint
method (ECM) is introduced. Our parallel random corrective approach is
significantly faster than prior methods and is not restricted to evaluating
points on a structured uniform mesh. As such we can generate more solutions.
The application of KD-Trees is another new contribution. We use them to perform
proximity testing and to store the high dimensional Pareto frontier (PF). For
generating, viewing, navigating, and querying an archive, the development of a
suitable decision support tool (DST) is proposed and demonstrated.Comment: 38 pages, 17 figures, 11 table
The Efficacy of Utility Functions for Multicriteria Hospital Case-Mix Planning
A new approach to perform hospital case-mix planning (CMP) is introduced in
this article. Our multi-criteria approach utilises utility functions (UF) to
articulate the preferences and standpoint of independent decision makers
regarding outputs. The primary aim of this article is to test whether a utility
functions method (UFM) based upon the scalarization of aforesaid UF is an
appropriate quantitative technique to, i) distribute hospital resources to
different operating units, and ii) provide a better capacity allocation and
case mix. Our approach is motivated by the need to provide a method able to
evaluate the trade-off between different stakeholders and objectives of
hospitals. To the best of our knowledge, no such approach has been considered
before in the literature. As we will later show, this idea addresses various
technical limitations, weaknesses, and flaws in current CMP. The efficacy of
the aforesaid approach is tested on a case study of a large tertiary hospital.
Currently UF are not used by hospital managers, and real functions are
unavailable, hence, 14 rational options are tested. Our exploratory analysis
has provided important guidelines for the application of these UF. It indicates
that these UF provide a valuable starting point for planners, managers, and
executives of hospitals to impose their goals and aspirations. In conclusion,
our approach may be better at identifying case mix that users want to treat and
seems more capable of modelling the varying importance of different levels of
output. Apart from finding desirable case mixes to consider, the approach can
provide important insights via a sensitivity analysis of the parameters of each
UF.Comment: 35 pages, 6 tables, 29 figure
Wound care practices across two acute care settings: A comparative study
Aims and objectives: Describe and compare current surgical wound care practices across two hospitals in two health services districts, Australia. Background: Surgical site infections (SSI) are a complication of surgery and occur in up to 9.5% of surgical procedures, yet they are preventable. Despite the existence of clinical guidelines for SSI prevention, there remains high variation in wound care practice. Design: Prospective comparative design using structured observations and chart audit. Methods: A specifically developed audit tool was used to collect data on observed wound care practices, documentation of wound assessment and practice, and patients’ clinical characteristics from patients’ electronic medical records. Structured observations of a consecutive sample of surgical patients receiving wound care with a convenience sample of nurses were undertaken. The manuscript adheres to the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) Statement. Results: In total, 154 nurses undertaking acute wound care and 257 surgical patients who received wound care were observed. Across hospitals, hand hygiene adherence after dressing change was lowest (Hospital A: 8/113, 7%; Hospital B: 16/144, 11%; χ 2: 8.93, p =.347). Most wound dressing practices were similar across sites, except hand hygiene prior to dressing change (Hospital A: 107/113, 95%; Hospital B: 131/144, 91%; (χ 2: 7.736, p =.021) and use of clean gloves using nontouch technique (Hospital A: 88/113, 78%; Hospital B: 90/144, 63%; χ 2: 8.313, p =.016). The most commonly documented wound characteristic was wound type (Hospital A: 43/113, 38%; Hospital B: 70/144, 49%). What nurses documented differed significantly across sites (p <.05). Conclusions: Clinical variations in wound care practice are likely influenced by clinical context. Relevance to clinical practice: Using an evidence-based approach to surgical wound management will help reduce patients’ risk of wound-related complications