CAREER: Managing Patient Flows with Congestion Effects

The aim of this Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program award is to develop simple and effective dynamic control policies to improve hospital patient flows with a primary focus on the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). ICUs provide care for the most critical patients. They are very expensive to operate and often operate at or above capacity. Variability in patient flows from the Emergency Department (ED) and other inpatient units can exacerbate congestion in the ICU; this can alter the type and quality of care provided. There has been significant effort from the medical community to reduce process variation; however, in general, they have not considered how operational factors may contribute to this variation. The research will use operations research tools to improve patient flows by augmenting traditional models and introducing new ones which account for congestion effects.

The results of this research will generate insight for how congestion affects the timing of care and, subsequently, impacts the best practices for healthcare operations in the ICU and other care facilities. Such quantitative modeling and optimization will provide the foundation for systematic decision making. Close collaborations with clinicians will help facilitate exposure and acceptance of operational tools by the medical community. Adoption of these policies and methodologies will help improve patient outcomes via increased access to care and may also reduce hospital costs. This has important implications for improvement of healthcare provision and is of direct impact to patients and the wider community.