To pool or not to pool in hospitals: a theoretical and practical comparison for a radiotherapy outpatient department

To pool or not to pool in hospitals: a theoretical and practical comparison for a radiotherapy outpatient department

0.00 Avg rating0 Votes
Article ID: iaor20105030
Volume: 178
Issue: 1
Start Page Number: 77
End Page Number: 89
Publication Date: Jul 2010
Journal: Annals of Operations Research
Authors: , ,
Keywords: queues: applications
Abstract:

This paper examines whether urgent and regular patients waiting for a consultation at a radiotherapy outpatient department should be pooled or not. Both queuing theory and discrete event simulation were applied to a realistic case study. The theoretical approach shows that pooling is not always beneficial with regard to the waiting times of urgent patients. Furthermore, the practical approach indicates that the separation of queues may require less capacity to meet the waiting time performance target for urgent as well as regular patients. The results seem to be of general interest for hospitals.

Reviews

Required fields are marked *. Your email address will not be published.