title: Faster Cancer Treatment: Using timestamp data to improve patient journeys.
abstract: This paper presents a case study of research conducted to improve the delivery of treatment to high priority cancer patients. The authors present a modelling framework that uses time-stamp data collected by the North Shore Hospital IT systems as "business as usual", to describe the patient journey through the cancer-care process. A simulation process is developed that uses this data to estimate the service's performance under current operating practices, and enables "what-if" analysis to identify where changes to current practice can most effectively be applied, ensuring the investment of additional resource can be targeted at the steps of the patient pathway where it can result in the greatest improvement. The process is illustrated using the Breast Cancer stream as a case-study, for the initial study period (July 2013 to June 2014), with a follow-up analysis presented briefly for the 3 months from July to the end of September 2014.
authors.affiliation: University of Auckland, Engineering Science, 70 Symonds st, 3rd floor Uniservices House, New Zealand. Electronic address: cameron.walker@auckland.ac.nz.
authors.forename: C G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.affiliation: University of Auckland, Engineering Science, 70 Symonds st, 3rd floor Uniservices House, New Zealand.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: O'Sullivan
authors.affiliation: University of Auckland, Engineering Science, 70 Symonds st, 3rd floor Uniservices House, New Zealand.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ziedins
authors.affiliation: University of Auckland, Engineering Science, 70 Symonds st, 3rd floor Uniservices House, New Zealand.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Furian
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D019091:Critical Pathways; D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D005260:Female; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D017146:Models, Organizational; D017064:Process Assessment, Health Care; D036301:Qualitative Research; D061665:Time-to-Treatment
keywords: Bootstrap simulation; Healthcare Analytics; Improving Cancer Treatment