Operations research (OR) is a discipline that applies mathematical modeling to enable better decision making and has been applied to many problems in healthcare.

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Books on Operations Research

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Two of the most common OR methods are mathematical optimization and discrete event simulation. The Determining the Size and Skill-Mix of a Nursing Resource Team and the Simulation Modeling for the Planning of Bed Capacities LKS-CHART projects respectively use these two methods.

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Mathematical optimization focus:

• Operations Research by Wayne L. Winston

• Introduction to Operations Research by Frederick S. Hillier and Gerald J. Lieberman

• Production and Operations Analysis by Steven Nahmias and Tava Lennon Olsen, a more application-oriented book that introduces optimization in the context of problems such as capacity planning, inventory control, scheduling, and facility location.

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Discrete event simulation focus:

• Simulation Modeling and Analysis by Averill M. Law

• Discrete-event System Simulation by Jerry Banks and John S. Carson

 

General Resources on Healthcare Operations Research

• Taxonomic classification of planning decisions in health care: this article describes a taxonomy for classifying the resource planning decisions that arise in the context of health services, and provides references to papers that study each decision problem in depth.

• Operations Research and Health Care: A Handbook of Methods and Applications by Margaret L. Brandeau, François Sainfort, and William P. Pierskalla (eds.)

• Handbook of Healthcare Operations Management by Brian T. Denton (ed.)

• Patient Flow by Randolph Hall (ed.): in particular, chapter 9 by Jacobson et al provides a historical overview of the application of discrete event simulation in healthcare.

 

Research papers by application domain

 

Operating room planning and scheduling:

• Cardoen, B., Demeulemeester, E., & Beliën, J. (2010). Operating room planning and scheduling: A literature review. European journal of operational research, 201(3), 921-932.

• Blake, J. T., & Donald, J. (2002). Mount Sinai hospital uses integer programming to allocate operating room time. Interfaces, 32(2), 63-73.

 

Emergency department simulation:

• Paul, S. A., Reddy, M. C., & DeFlitch, C. J. (2010). A systematic review of simulation studies investigating emergency department overcrowding. Simulation, 86(8-9), 559-571.

• Brenner, S., Zeng, Z., Liu, Y., Wang, J., Li, J., & Howard, P. K. (2010). Modeling and analysis of the emergency department at University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital using simulations. Journal of emergency nursing, 36(4), 303-310.

 

Nurse staffing & scheduling:

• Burke, E. K., De Causmaecker, P., Berghe, G. V., & Van Landeghem, H. (2004). The state of the art of nurse rostering. Journal of scheduling, 7(6), 441-499.

• Harper, P. R., Powell, N. H., & Williams, J. E. (2010). Modelling the size and skill-mix of hospital nursing teams. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 61(5), 768-779.

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Bed capacity planning:

• Green, L. V. (2002). How many hospital beds? INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing, 39(4), 400-412.

• Harper, P. R., & Shahani, A. K. (2002). Modelling for the planning and management of bed capacities in hospitals. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 53(1), 11-18.

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