Optimization is an important prescriptive analytic tool that addresses challenges in healthcare. It is often used in healthcare to improve care, accountability, resource management, and transparency. There are a number of ways healthcare may use optimization to optimize healthcare delivery. This includes optimizing activity scheduling, personnel scheduling, and resource management. Activity scheduling involves the daily planning of various health care activities. This includes diagnostic, treatment, and control activities. It is important to note that each of these activities requires resources –human and material. These resources ought to be optimized to achieve a high level of treatment quality.
One area in which optimization is used to improve health delivery is activity scheduling. This prescriptive analytic tool is used for generating nursing staff schedules. This helps health care facilities ensure appropriate staff coverage with varying patient inflows. A prime example of activity scheduling is surgery scheduling. In many health care facilities, the surgery driver is a significant cost driver. One way to reduce the costs associated with surgery is optimal surgery scheduling. It helps improve resource efficiency and reduce staff workload. In addition, optimal surgery scheduling can reduce patient’s waiting time as well as reduce the number of surgery cancellations.
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Optimization is also often used for generating personnel scheduling. Through optimal personnel scheduling, a healthcare organization can improve healthcare delivery. This optimization involves matching staff members to shifts to meet the required staffing levels. In this regard, healthcare facilities often use the software, such as Scoop Roster, to optimize personnel scheduling. Lastly, healthcare facilities can use optimization to manage their resources. This is referred to as resource optimization. Resources can be both human and material. There is a need to optimize these resources to ensure efficient utilization of resources. There are a number of processes and workflows in health care facilities that are best served by optimization. Most of these processes or workflows have been outlined above. This include activity scheduling, personnel scheduling and resources management.
References
Riise, A. (n.d). Optimization in health care. [Online]. Retrieved July 19, 2020, from https://www.sintef.no/en/digital/applied-mathematics/optimization/health-care-optimization/
