title: Decision support for clinical laboratory capacity planning.
abstract: The design of a decision support system for capacity planning in clinical laboratories is discussed. The DSS supports decisions concerning the following questions: how should the laboratory be divided into job shops (departments/sections), how should staff be assigned to workstations and how should samples be assigned to workstations for testing. The decision support system contains modules for supporting decisions at the overall laboratory level (concerning the division of the laboratory into job shops) and for supporting decisions at the job shop level (assignment of staff to workstations and sample scheduling). Experiments with these modules are described showing both the functionality and the validity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Policy and Administration, University of Limburg, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: G G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: van Merode
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hasman
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Derks
authors.forename: H M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Goldschmidt
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Schoenmaker
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Oosten
mesh_terms: D002984:Clinical Laboratory Information Systems / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D004526:Efficiency; D006801:Humans; D007753:Laboratories / Q000458:organization & administration; D017056:Medical Laboratory Personnel; D010559:Personnel Management; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013269:Stochastic Processes; D018511:Systems Integration; D000078329:Workforce; D016526:Workload