A simulation study of the winter bed crisis

C Vasilakis, E El-Darzi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

44 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

The winter bed crisis is a cyclical phenomenon which appears in British hospitals every year, two or three weeks after Christmas. The crisis is usually attributed to factors such as the bad weather, influenza, older people, geriatricians, lack of cash or nurse shortages. However, a possible alternative explanation could be that beds within the hospital are blocked because of lack of social services for discharge of hospital patients during the Christmas period. Adopting this explanation of why the bed crisis occurs, the problem was considered as a queuing system and discrete event simulation was employed to evaluate the model numerically. The model shows that stopping discharges of rehabilitating patients for 21 days accompanied by a cessation of planned patients for 14 days precipitate a bed crisis when the planned admissions recommence. The extensive "what-if" capabilities of such models could be proved to be crucial to the designing and implementation of possible solutions to the problem.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)31-6
Number of pages6
JournalHealth Care Management Science
Volume4
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2001

Keywords

  • Aged
  • Bed Occupancy
  • Computer Simulation
  • Great Britain
  • Holidays
  • Hospitals, Public
  • Humans
  • Models, Theoretical
  • Patient Discharge
  • Seasons
  • Social Work Department, Hospital
  • Systems Theory

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A simulation study of the winter bed crisis'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this