| Article ID: | iaor20041050 |
| Country: | Netherlands |
| Volume: | 34 |
| Issue: | 4 |
| Start Page Number: | 445 |
| End Page Number: | 456 |
| Publication Date: | Mar 2003 |
| Journal: | Decision Support Systems |
| Authors: | Walczak Steven, Pofahl Walter E., Scorpio Ronald J. |
| Keywords: | neural networks |
Limitations in health care funding require physicians and hospitals to find effective ways to utilize resources. Neural networks provide a method for predicting resource utilization of costly resources used for prolonged periods of time. Injury severity knowledge is used to determine the acuity of care required for each patient and length of stay is used to determine duration of inpatient hospitalization. Neural networks perform well on these medical domain problems, predicting total length of stay within 3 days for pediatric trauma (population mean and S.D. 4.37±45.12) and within 4 days for acute pancreatitis patients (7.75±79.19).