Evaluating hospital design from an operations management perspective

This paper describes an evaluation method for the assessment of hospital building design from the viewpoint of operations management to assure that the building design supports the efficient and effective operating of care processes now and in the future. The different steps of the method are illustrated by a case study. In the case study an experimental design is applied to assess the effect of used logistical concepts, patient mix and technologies. The study shows that the evaluation method provides a valuable tool for the assessment of both functionality and the ability to meet future developments in operational control of a building design. (aut. ref.

Enterprise resource planning for hospitals

Integrated hospitals need a central planning and control system to plan patients' processes and the required capacity. Given the changes in healthcare one can ask the question what type of information systems can best support these healthcare delivery organizations. We focus in this review on the potential of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems for healthcare delivery organizations. First ERP systems are explained. An overview is then presented of the characteristics of the planning process in hospital environments. Problems with ERP that are due to the special characteristics of healthcare are presented. The situations in which ERP can or cannot be used are discussed. It is suggested to divide hospitals in a part that is concerned only with deterministic processes and a part that is concerned with non-deterministic processes. ERP can be very useful for planning and controlling the deterministic processe

Shifting stroke care from the hospital to the nursing home: explaining the outcomes of a Dutch case

Analysis and support of clinical decision makin

Compliance to technical guidelines for radiotherapy treatment in relation to patient safety

To determine the compliance of radiation technologists to technical guidelines in daily practice for radiotherapy treatment and whether there are differences in compliance across organizational units. On the basis of consensus, radiation technologists constructed a flowchart describing the work procedure of the irradiation of patients with breast cancer. Using video recordings, technologists in two units were observed to determine whether treatment was conducted in accordance with the flowchart. Data have been collected on one linear accelerator at the MAASTRO clinic, a radiotherapy clinic in the Netherlands. Fifty-six treatments for breast cancer were analyzed in two treatment units. Percentage compliance to the most important issues for patient safety. An overall compliance of 59% (range: 2-100%) was shown on the 18 most important tasks for patient safety. Between the two units, the compliance varied from 21% to 81%. Tasks considered important by independent assessment had higher levels of compliance. Video-taped observation proved to be an effective tool for determining compliance in daily practice. A large variation in practice within and across units was detected by the video observations suggesting a need for standard operating procedures to improve the safety of radiotherapy