Why Shift Scheduling for ER Triage Nurses is Challenging: Lessons from Operations Research

Elizabeth Jewkes
Professor and Chair, Department of Management Sciences
University of Waterloo

Wednesday, February 20, 2008
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Davis Centre 1304, University of Waterloo

View Video of Presentation in HI Alive Archive: Research Seminars Archive 2007-2008

Abstract
Triage is a key component in Emergency Room operations. Nurses identify the severity of a patient's symptoms for the purpose of prioritization and, at the same time collect basic information for hospital records. With long ER room wait times the focus of so much attention, one of the operational questions commonly asked is "What nurse staffing levels are needed to accommodate demand?"  Schedules that take into account time of day demand fluctuations and that appear to accommodate demand can still result in long waiting times. This talk presents several classical Operations Research methods for scheduling and explains, with real data, why commonly used approaches for setting staffing levels don't work well.

About the Speaker
Dr. Beth Jewkes is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Management Sciences at the University of Waterloo. She received her PhD (Management Sciences) from the University of Waterloo. Her research interests focus on stochastic models of manufacturing and service systems, with a more recent focus on the use of operations research in healthcare systems. This talk stems from some work done with the Grand River Hospital as staff there seek to reduce ER wait times.