Queueing Models for Patient-Flow Dynamics in Inpatient Wards

Long delays for patients waiting to be admitted to inpatient units are currently the standard state of affairs in urban hospitals in the United States and around the world. To alleviate congestion, hospital management seeks ways to increase efficiency by improving the flow of patients between the different hospital units. To this end, effective queueing models that are specifically tailored to the hospital setting are required. In “Queueing models for patient-flow dynamics for inpatient wards,” Dong and Perry propose a new class of queueing models for inpatient wards, taking into account the salient features associated with patient-flow dynamics. It is demonstrated how those models can be employed to compute the optimal number of beds that are needed or to measure the impacts of changes to discharge process.