Event

Elective literature:

• Fleßa: Grundzüge der Krankenhausbetriebslehre, Oldenbourg, 2007
• Fleßa: Grundzüge der Krankenhaussteuerung, Oldenbourg, 2008
• Hall: Patient flow: reducing delay in healthcare delivery, Springer, 2006

The lecture Operations Research in Health Care Management deals with applying Operations Research methods to planning problems in health care. First, the German health care system is discussed to understand the actors and institutions' responsibilities and the financing principles. Here, we concentrate on hospitals. Reforms in the health care systems have put hospitals under ever-increasing cost and competitive pressure in recent years. For example, the introduction of diagnosis-related groups (DRG), a medical-service-based reimbursement, has abolished the principle of cost coverage to create incentives for the economic behavior that was often lacking in the past. The overall goal is to achieve a sustainable improvement in the quality, transparency, and cost-effectiveness of inpatient services in hospitals. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze existing processes and, if necessary, to make them more efficient. For this purpose, Operations Research offers numerous methods. The application of these can lead to significant improvements. However, next to economic efficiency, also treatment quality and patient satisfaction are essential. The lecture will address the following planning problems: appointment scheduling, internal patient transport, operation room planning, rostering and physician scheduling, and layout planning. Finally, we will address location planning (of hospitals, medical practices, ambulance stations, and so on).