236. Balancing waiting lists and workloads in hospitals
Invited abstract in session HC-5: Innovation 2, stream Sessions.
Thursday, 11:00-12:30Room: St Olavs, Kunnskapssenteret KA11
Authors (first author is the speaker)
| 1. | Rob Vromans
|
| Rhythm |
Abstract
Long waiting lists and access times are persistent challenges for many healthcare organisations. Efforts to reduce external waiting lists by increasing outpatient consultations can inadvertently create unmanageable workloads and growing internal waiting lists. This presentation explores an innovative method for balancing and coordinating scarce capacity across departments such as outpatient clinics, operating rooms, and wards. With the aim to reduce waiting times for patients and optimize the patient flow.
Using real-world patient flow data, our method systematically allocates weekly capacity across medical specialties and develops daily schedules that balance workloads for downstream departments, such as diagnostics and wards. Drawing insights from implemented prototypes, we illustrate the broader potential for this approach in diverse hospital and clinical settings. By sharing lessons learned, this presentation offers hospitals and other healthcare organisations insight in how to effectively improve patient access to healthcare.
Keywords
- Patient flow
Status: accepted
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