TY - JOUR
T1 - Queueing Problems in Emergency Departments
T2 - A Review of Practical Approaches and Research Methodologies
AU - Elalouf, Amir
AU - Wachtel, Guy
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
PY - 2022/3
Y1 - 2022/3
N2 - Problems related to patient scheduling and queueing in emergency departments are gaining increasing attention in theory, in the fields of operations research and emergency and healthcare services, and in practice. This paper aims to provide an extensive review of studies addressing queueing-related problems explicitly related to emergency departments. We have reviewed 229 articles and books spanning seven decades and have sought to organize the information they contain in a manner that is accessible and useful to researchers seeking to gain knowledge on specific aspects of such problems. We begin by presenting a historical overview of applications of queueing theory to healthcare-related problems. We subsequently elaborate on managerial approaches used to enhance efficiency in emergency departments. These approaches include bed management, fast-track, dynamic resource allocation, grouping/prioritization of patients, and triage approaches. Finally, we discuss scientific methodologies used to analyze and optimize these approaches: algorithms, priority models, queueing models, simulation, and statistical approaches.
AB - Problems related to patient scheduling and queueing in emergency departments are gaining increasing attention in theory, in the fields of operations research and emergency and healthcare services, and in practice. This paper aims to provide an extensive review of studies addressing queueing-related problems explicitly related to emergency departments. We have reviewed 229 articles and books spanning seven decades and have sought to organize the information they contain in a manner that is accessible and useful to researchers seeking to gain knowledge on specific aspects of such problems. We begin by presenting a historical overview of applications of queueing theory to healthcare-related problems. We subsequently elaborate on managerial approaches used to enhance efficiency in emergency departments. These approaches include bed management, fast-track, dynamic resource allocation, grouping/prioritization of patients, and triage approaches. Finally, we discuss scientific methodologies used to analyze and optimize these approaches: algorithms, priority models, queueing models, simulation, and statistical approaches.
KW - Discrete-event simulation
KW - Emergency department
KW - Length of stay
KW - Literature review
KW - Queueing
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85126211952&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s43069-021-00114-8
DO - 10.1007/s43069-021-00114-8
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AN - SCOPUS:85126211952
SN - 2662-2556
VL - 3
JO - Operations Research Forum
JF - Operations Research Forum
IS - 1
M1 - 2
ER -