Operational Research for Health Policy: Making Better Decisions

ORAHS, the Working Group on Operational Research Applied to Health Services, is a special-interest group of EURO (the European Association of OR Societies). ORAHS meets every year in a different host country. The objectives of the group include communication of ideas, knowledge and experience concerning the application of Operational Research approaches and methods to problems in the health services area; mutual support between members; and collaboration on joint projects. The 31st meeting of ORAHS was held in 2005 at the University of Southampton, UK. A total of forty-one scientific papers were presented, nineteen of which are contained in this volume. The application areas covered include resource allocation, performance measurement and disease modelling, from within Europe and beyond. The approaches used range from mathematical optimization, simulation and statistical modelling through to «soft» OR. These proceedings provide a broad perspective on current research in this area across Europe and beyond.

The Editors: Sally Brailsford is a Senior Lecturer in Management Science in the School of Management, University of Southampton. Her research interests include simulation modelling methodologies, system dynamics, health service research and disease modelling, and the modelling of human behaviour in healthcare systems. Paul Harper is a Senior Lecturer in Operational Research within the School of Mathematics, University of Southampton. His research interests are in simulation, healthcare modelling, OR for developing countries and data mining.

Contents: Dave Worthington: Operational Research Modelling to Support Healthcare Operations Management - Colin Thunhurst/Mary Cronin/Margaret Curtin: The ORCHID Project - Using Operational Research to build Partnerships for Community Health Development - Barry Shaw/Adele H. Marshall: Managing a Hospital Geriatric Ward: Identifying Cost-Effective Strategies - Burcu Toker Ersöz/Haluk S. Balkan: Hospital Workflow Management: a Case Study - A. Codrington-Virtue/T. Chaussalet/P. Whittlestone/J. Kelly: Developing an Application of an Accident and Emergency Patient Simulation Modelling Using an Interactive Framework - Linda Salustri/Paola Sbandi/Sally Brailsford/Roberto Brocato/Vanda De Angelis/Paul Harper/Giovanna Jona Lasinio: Simulation Modelling of a Major Accident and Emergency Department in Rome - Saeedeh Ketabi: Waiting Time and Reducing the Delay in Hospital Elective Procedures - Tobias Andersson/Sverker Petersson/Peter Värbrand: Decision Support for Efficient Ambulance Logistics - Steve Gallivan: Modelling the Assignment of Outpatient Examination Rooms - Marie Persson/Jan A. Persson: Optimization Modelling of Hospital Operating Room Planning: Analyzing Strategies and Problem Settings - Mario Vanhoucke/Broos Maenhout: NSPLib - A Nurse Scheduling Problem Library: a Tool to Evaluate (meta-) Heuristic Procedures - Murat M. Gunal/Mike Pidd: Performance Assessment of Hospitals by using Simulation - Léa Maria Dantas Sampaio/Mario Jorge Ferreira De Oliveira/Aníbal Alberto Vilcapoma Ignácio: An Evaluation of the Managed Care Program as Applied to the Brazilian Supplementary Health Service - Martin Dlouhy: Production Functions and Efficiency Evaluation in Health Care - Penelope M. Mullen: Choice OR Choice? - Martin Utley/Steve Gallivan/Mark Jit/Christos Paschalides/Carol Tan/Tom Treasure: Can Patient Progress Modelling Inform the Management of Cancer Patients? - Beste Kucuyazici/Vedat Verter/Lyne Nadeau/Nancy E. Mayo: A Scenario-Based Approach to the Improvement of Healthcare Delivery to Stroke Patients in the Community - Chris Sherlaw-Johnson/Steve Gallivan/Peter Wilson: The Development of a Risk Model to Assist with the Monitoring of Surgical Wound Infections.