title: Care on demand in nursing homes: a queueing theoretic approach.
abstract: Nursing homes face ever-tightening healthcare budgets and are searching for ways to increase the efficiency of their healthcare processes without losing sight of the needs of their residents. Optimizing the allocation of care workers plays a key role in this search as care workers are responsible for the daily care of the residents and account for a significant proportion of the total labor expenses. In practice, the lack of reliable data makes it difficult for nursing home managers to make informed staffing decisions. The focus of this study lies on the 'care on demand' process in a Belgian nursing home. Based on the analysis of real-life 'call button' data, a queueing model is presented which can be used by nursing home managers to determine the number of care workers required to meet a specific service level. Based on numerical experiments an 80/10 service level is proposed for this nursing home, meaning that at least 80 percent of the clients should receive care within 10 minutes after a call button request. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to develop a quantitative model for the 'care on demand' process in a nursing home.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1081a, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: van Eeden
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1081a, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. d.moeke@vu.nl.|School of Healthcare, Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, Hospitaaldreef 5, 1315 RC, Almere, The Netherlands. d.moeke@vu.nl.
authors.forename: Dennis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Moeke
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1081a, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: René
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bekker
mesh_terms: D001530:Belgium; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006707:Homes for the Aged / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D009735:Nursing Homes / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011787:Quality of Health Care