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.
Department of Industrial Engineering, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, Republic of China.
A
A
Jeang
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