Neuro-critical Care Unit Bed Allocation Optimization based on Hybrid Approach:Designing of Experiments and Simulation

Neurological Critical Care Unit is allocated for patients with critical conditions in the field of neurological diseases. ICU beds and their equipment are very expensive and there are some economic constraints for increasing the ICU beds. At the same time, the admission waiting time for patients in this unit is not favorable. Therefore, an initiative for better management of this ward was needed. The objective of this study was to examine an optimal program for allocating beds to patients, based on their required length of stay in the unit.

Methods and Materials:

 In this study, different categories of patients and their quantity was investigated in the Loghman Hakim hospital. Then, by using the design of experiments technique, optimal combinations were obtained. The obtained combinations were simulated for each of two criteria was calculated; patients' average waiting time and bed occupancy rate. Subsequently, a mathematical model with the objective function of minimizing the average waiting time for patients, as well as the average bed occupancy rate was presented using the linear response method.

According to the results of this study, an optimal combination of beds allocation to different categories of patients for the Neurological Critical Care Unit were respectively 6, 2, 3, 3, and 2 beds, and average waiting time was 1.4 hours and an average bed occupancy rate was 34.5%.

The present study demonstrated that optimization of bed allocation in ICU by using a combined approach of simulation and design of experiments, resulted in a decrease in average waiting time and increase in bed occupancy rate (bed productivity)