Characterizing inpatient hospital flow from information systems messaging

Healthcare organizations continuously face resource allocation decisions. A variety of quantitative approaches exist outlining allocation strategies; however they are largely deficient in their ability to reflect the inherent heterogeneity of a hospital's patient mix. This research lays the groundwork for future modeling of a hospital's operating environment by focusing on the resources a patient requires. A methodology is proposed to characterize the flow of resources which transforms a novel data set into a construct of resources consumed by a patient type. This paper outlines the patient flow problem, reviews the associated literature, proposes a methodology and presents preliminary results.

Characterizing inpatient hospital flow from information systems messaging Conference Paper