A stochastic control approach to avoiding emergency department overcrowding

A. Chockalingam; K. Jayakumar; M.A. Lawley

doi:10.1109/WSC.2010.5678936

A stochastic control approach to avoiding emergency department overcrowding

A. Chockalingam, K. Jayakumar, M.A. Lawley

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Emergency Department (ED) overcrowding is a common problem in hospitals in the United States. Presenting a barrier to safe delivery of healthcare, hospitals address ED overcrowding by diverting ambulances to the nearest available facility, leading to delays in healthcare delivery and losses in revenue. Control policies on hospital resources could greatly improve healthcare delivery by preventing overcrowding and ambulance diversion. In this paper, we use Petri-nets (PNs) to model patient and resource flow in a hospital system. Simulating these PNs, we can observe changes in the availability of resources over time and obtain a stochastic differential equation (SDE) which models the hospitals proximity to entering a divert state (in a Euclidean sense). Likening the resource allocation problem to a stochastic control problem, we derive the related free-boundary problem. The solution of this problem is the optimal control policy that dictates when and how many resources should be added or removed.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 2010 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC), 5-8 December 2010, Baltimore, USA
Editors	B. Johansson, S. Jain, J. Montoya-Torres, J. Hugan, E. Yucesan
Place of Publication	Piscataway
Publisher	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Pages	2399-2411
ISBN (Print)	978-1-4244-9866-6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/WSC.2010.5678936
Publication status	Published - 2010
Externally published	Yes
Event	2010 Winter Simulation Conference, WSC 2010 - Baltimore, United States Duration: 5 Dec 2010 → 8 Dec 2010

Conference

Conference	2010 Winter Simulation Conference, WSC 2010
Abbreviated title	WSC 2010
Country/Territory	United States
City	Baltimore
Period	5/12/10 → 8/12/10

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10.1109/WSC.2010.5678936

Cite this

Chockalingam, A., Jayakumar, K., & Lawley, M. A. (2010). A stochastic control approach to avoiding emergency department overcrowding. In B. Johansson, S. Jain, J. Montoya-Torres, J. Hugan, & E. Yucesan (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2010 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC), 5-8 December 2010, Baltimore, USA (pp. 2399-2411). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. https://doi.org/10.1109/WSC.2010.5678936

Chockalingam, A. ; Jayakumar, K. ; Lawley, M.A. / A stochastic control approach to avoiding emergency department overcrowding. Proceedings of the 2010 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC), 5-8 December 2010, Baltimore, USA. editor / B. Johansson ; S. Jain ; J. Montoya-Torres ; J. Hugan ; E. Yucesan. Piscataway : Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2010. pp. 2399-2411

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title = "A stochastic control approach to avoiding emergency department overcrowding",

abstract = "Emergency Department (ED) overcrowding is a common problem in hospitals in the United States. Presenting a barrier to safe delivery of healthcare, hospitals address ED overcrowding by diverting ambulances to the nearest available facility, leading to delays in healthcare delivery and losses in revenue. Control policies on hospital resources could greatly improve healthcare delivery by preventing overcrowding and ambulance diversion. In this paper, we use Petri-nets (PNs) to model patient and resource flow in a hospital system. Simulating these PNs, we can observe changes in the availability of resources over time and obtain a stochastic differential equation (SDE) which models the hospitals proximity to entering a divert state (in a Euclidean sense). Likening the resource allocation problem to a stochastic control problem, we derive the related free-boundary problem. The solution of this problem is the optimal control policy that dictates when and how many resources should be added or removed.",

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Chockalingam, A, Jayakumar, K & Lawley, MA 2010, A stochastic control approach to avoiding emergency department overcrowding. in B Johansson, S Jain, J Montoya-Torres, J Hugan & E Yucesan (eds), Proceedings of the 2010 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC), 5-8 December 2010, Baltimore, USA. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Piscataway, pp. 2399-2411, 2010 Winter Simulation Conference, WSC 2010, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, 5/12/10. https://doi.org/10.1109/WSC.2010.5678936

A stochastic control approach to avoiding emergency department overcrowding. / Chockalingam, A.; Jayakumar, K.; Lawley, M.A.
Proceedings of the 2010 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC), 5-8 December 2010, Baltimore, USA. ed. / B. Johansson; S. Jain; J. Montoya-Torres; J. Hugan; E. Yucesan. Piscataway: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2010. p. 2399-2411.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

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AU - Jayakumar, K.

AU - Lawley, M.A.

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N2 - Emergency Department (ED) overcrowding is a common problem in hospitals in the United States. Presenting a barrier to safe delivery of healthcare, hospitals address ED overcrowding by diverting ambulances to the nearest available facility, leading to delays in healthcare delivery and losses in revenue. Control policies on hospital resources could greatly improve healthcare delivery by preventing overcrowding and ambulance diversion. In this paper, we use Petri-nets (PNs) to model patient and resource flow in a hospital system. Simulating these PNs, we can observe changes in the availability of resources over time and obtain a stochastic differential equation (SDE) which models the hospitals proximity to entering a divert state (in a Euclidean sense). Likening the resource allocation problem to a stochastic control problem, we derive the related free-boundary problem. The solution of this problem is the optimal control policy that dictates when and how many resources should be added or removed.

AB - Emergency Department (ED) overcrowding is a common problem in hospitals in the United States. Presenting a barrier to safe delivery of healthcare, hospitals address ED overcrowding by diverting ambulances to the nearest available facility, leading to delays in healthcare delivery and losses in revenue. Control policies on hospital resources could greatly improve healthcare delivery by preventing overcrowding and ambulance diversion. In this paper, we use Petri-nets (PNs) to model patient and resource flow in a hospital system. Simulating these PNs, we can observe changes in the availability of resources over time and obtain a stochastic differential equation (SDE) which models the hospitals proximity to entering a divert state (in a Euclidean sense). Likening the resource allocation problem to a stochastic control problem, we derive the related free-boundary problem. The solution of this problem is the optimal control policy that dictates when and how many resources should be added or removed.

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BT - Proceedings of the 2010 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC), 5-8 December 2010, Baltimore, USA

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Chockalingam A, Jayakumar K, Lawley MA. A stochastic control approach to avoiding emergency department overcrowding. In Johansson B, Jain S, Montoya-Torres J, Hugan J, Yucesan E, editors, Proceedings of the 2010 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC), 5-8 December 2010, Baltimore, USA. Piscataway: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. 2010. p. 2399-2411 doi: 10.1109/WSC.2010.5678936

A stochastic control approach to avoiding emergency department overcrowding

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