Abstract
Many organizations, such as banks, airlines, telecommunications companies, and police departments, routinely use queueing models to help determine capacity levels needed to respond to experienced demands in a timely fashion. Though queueing analysis has been used in hospitals and other healthcare settings, its use in this sector is not widespread. Yet, given the pervasiveness of delays in healthcare and the fact that many healthcare facilities are trying to meet increasing demands with tightly constrained resources, queueing models can be very useful in developing more effective policies for bed allocation and staffing, and in identifying other opportunities for improving service. Queueing analysis is also a key tool in estimating capacity requirements for possible future scenarios, including demand surges due to new diseases or acts of terrorism. This chapter describes basic queueing models as well as some simple modifications and extensions that are particularly useful in the healthcare setting, and give examples of their use. The critical issue of data requirements is also be discussed as well as model choice, model- building and the interpretation and use of results.
Access provided by Autonomous University of Puebla. Download to read the full chapter text
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
6. References
Allen, A.O., 1978, Probability, statistics and queueing theory, with computer science applications. New York, Academic Press.
Brecher, C. and Speizio, S., 1995, Privatization and Public Hospitals, Twentieth Century Fund Press, N.Y.
Brewton, J.P., 1989, Teller staffing models, Financial Manager’s Statement, July–August: 22–24.
Brigandi, A.J., Dargon, D.R., Sheehan, M.J. and Spencer III, T., 1994, AT&T’s call processing simulator (CAPS) operational design for inbound call centers, Interfaces 24: 6–28.
Brockmeyer, E., Halstrom, H.L., and Jensen, A., 1948, The life and works of A.K. Erlang, Transactions of the Danish Academy of Technical Science 2.
Brusco, M.J., Jacobs, L.W., Bongiorno, R.J., Lyons, D.V. and Tang, B., 1995, Improving personnel scheduling at airline stations, Operations Research, 43: 741–751.
Chelst, K. and Barlach, Z., 1981, Multiple unit dispatches in emergency services, Management Science, 27: 1390–1409.
Cobham, A., 1954, Priority assignment in waiting line problems, Operations Research, 2: 70–76.
Freeman, R.K., and Poland, R.L., 1997, Guidelines for Perinatal Care, 4th ed., American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Washington, D.C.
Green, L.V., Giulio, J., Green, R., and Soares, J., 2005, Using queueing theory to increase the effectiveness of physician staffing in the emergency department, Academic Emergency Medicine, to appear.
Green, L.V., 2003, How many hospital beds? Inquiry, 39: 400–412.
Green, L.V., Kolesar, P.J., Svoronos, A., 2001, Improving the SIPP approach for staffing service systems that have cyclic demands, Operations Research, 49: 549–564.
Green, L.V. and Nguyen, V., 2001, Strategies for cutting hospital beds: the impact on patient service. Health Services Research, 36: 421–442.
Green, L.V., Kolesar, P.J., and Svoronos, A., 1991, Some effects of nonstationarity on multi-server Markovian queueing systems. Operations Research, 39: 502–511.
Green, L.V., and Kolesar, P.J., 1984, The feasibility of one-officer patrol in New York City, Management Science 20: 964–981.
Hall, R.W., 1990, Queueing Methods for Service and Manufacturing. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Holloran, T. J. and Byrne, J.E., 1986, United Airlines station manpower planning system, Interfaces, 16: 39–50.
Green, L.V., 2003, How many hospital beds? Inquiry, 39: 400–412.
Institute of Medicine, Committee on Quality of Health Care in America, 2001, Crossing the quality chasm: a new health system for the 21 st century. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
Kaplan, E.H., Sprung, C.L., Shmueli, A., and Schneider, D., 1981. A methodology for the analysis of comparability of services and financial impact of closure of obstetrics services. Medical Care, 19: 395–409.
Kim, S., Horowitz, I., Young, K.K., and Buckley, T.A., 1999, Analysis of capacity management of the intensive care unit in a hospital, European Journal of Operational Research 115: 36–46.
Kolesar, P.J., Rider, K., Crabill, T., and Walker, W., 1975, A queueing linear programming approach to scheduling police cars, Operations Research, 23: 1045–1062.
Larson, R.C., 1972, Urban Police Patrol Analysis, MIT Press, Cambridge.
McCaig, L.F., and Burt, C.W., 2004, National hospital ambulatory medical care survey: 2002 emergency department summary. Advance Data from Vital and Health Statistics, 340: 1–35.
Stern, H.I. and Hersh, M., 1980, Scheduling aircraft cleaning crews, Transportation Science, 14: 277–291.
Taylor, P.E. and Huxley, S.J., 1989, A break from tradition for the San Francisco police: patrol officer scheduling using an optimization-based decision support system, Interfaces, 19: 4–24.
Worthington, D.J., 1987, Queueing models for hospital waiting lists. Journal of the Operations Research Society, 38: 413–422.
Young, J.P., 1965, Stabilization of inpatient bed occupancy through control of admissions, Journal of the American Hospital Association, 39: 41–48.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Green, L. (2006). Queueing Analysis in Healthcare. In: Hall, R.W. (eds) Patient Flow: Reducing Delay in Healthcare Delivery. International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, vol 91. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-33636-7_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-33636-7_10
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-33635-0
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-33636-7
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)