Article ID: | iaor20042138 |
Country: | Netherlands |
Volume: | 6 |
Issue: | 2 |
Start Page Number: | 97 |
End Page Number: | 104 |
Publication Date: | Jun 2003 |
Journal: | Health Care Management Science |
Authors: | Gallivan Steve, Treasure Tom, Valencia Oswaldo, Utley Martin |
In the UK, hospitals are being encouraged to introduce booked admissions policies for elective inpatient services whereby patients are given a date for hospital admission months in advance rather than being put on a waiting list and then informed of their admission date at short notice. We address the question of what level of capacity is required to operate such a system if cancellations of booked elective patients are to be kept to a low level. Methods are presented for quantifying the day to day variation in bed demand due to emergency admissions, patient initiated cancellations and variable lengths of stay amongst patients.