Bed Utilization Management at Landstuhl Army Regional Medical Center: Developmentof a Patient Placement Decision Support Model (Final report July 1991-July 1991)

摘要

At Landstuhl Army Regional Medical Center (LARMC), the increase in the number ofinpatients due to Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm had made leaders acutely aware of efficiency issues throughout the facility. One key area targeted for improvement in efficiency was bed utilization management. Leaders at LARMC were convinced that their bed utilization management practices were not fully efficient, and were eager to improve them in the face of the potential for a dramatic rise in the number of inpatients presented by the situation in the Persian Gulf Region. As a topic in current professional literature, bed utilization management is not well established. Much of what has been written about improving efficiency in this area can be classified into the following categories: bed utilization, nursing resource management, patient classification systems, and expert systems applications to nursing and bed management. Approaching the problem from the above-mentioned perspectives, I set out to investigate the feasibility of using an expert system to improve LARMC's bed utilization efficiency. My investigation began with an assessment of the effectiveness of the current bed utilization management efforts, and a determination of the system objectives desired by the stakeholders.... Bed utilization management, Expert systems, Patient placement decision.