Flexible nursing staff planning when patient demands are uncertain.
Determination of appropriate nursing staff levels to provide quality service and maintain economic efficiency is a difficult problem for health care administrators to solve. The objective of this paper then is to prevent a mathematical model for determining the number of staff among full time and part time staff as well as overtime when patient demands are uncertain. The demand level is considered as a distribution on a daily basis. The model intends to integrate an entire week as a whole so that the number of staff is found on a weekly basis. Based on this model, the nursing workforce can accommodate patient needs efficiently and economically while remaining flexible in an uncertain demand environment.
Jeang
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Department of Industrial Engineering, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, Republic of China.
D000465:Algorithms; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D017721:Hospital Costs; D006801:Humans; D018803:Models, Economic; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009726:Nurses / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013996:Time and Motion Studies; D016526:Workload