Abstract
In the UK, hospitals are being encouraged to introduce booked admissions policies for elective inpatient services whereby patients are given a date for hospital admission months in advance rather than being put on a waiting list and then informed of their admission date at short notice. We address the question of what level of capacity is required to operate such a system if cancellations of booked elective patients are to be kept to a low level. Methods are presented for quantifying the day to day variation in bed demand due to emergency admissions, patient initiated cancellations and variable lengths of stay amongst patients.
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Utley, M., Gallivan, S., Treasure, T. et al. Analytical Methods for Calculating the Capacity Required to Operate an Effective Booked Admissions Policy for Elective Inpatient Services. Health Care Management Science 6, 97–104 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023333002675
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023333002675