PubMed Health⌕ Search

PubMed · 11718465

Scheduling emergency room physicians.

Abstract

This paper introduces the problem of scheduling emergency room physicians. We interviewed physicians from six hospitals in the greater Montreal, Canada area, in order to understand the emergency room scheduling problem. Extracting the real scheduling problem is difficult because physician working conditions are based on informal mutual cooperation which is usually not documented. We present the characteristics of the scheduling problem and the scheduling techniques currently used in the six emergency rooms we analyzed. Using the scheduling problems of Charles-Lemoyne Hospital and the Jewish General Hospital, we show how to modify a hospital's existing scheduling rules to develop techniques which produce better schedules and reduce the time needed to build them.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

M W Carter, S D Lapierre. 2001. Scheduling emergency room physicians.. https://doi.org/10.1023/a%3A1011802630656

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related citations

Consolidations and closures: an empirical analysis of exits from the hospital industry.

This paper investigates the pre-exit characteristics of hospital mergers, acquisitions, and closures. We estimate competing risk hazard models using an 18-year national data set that spans the wave of closures in the 1980s and of mergers in the 1990s. Evidence shows that weak productivity of the hospital is a strong determinant for closures while competitive pressures are more influential in the decision to consolidate. Thus, increased market power, relative to cost reductions, appears to play a larger role in the merger decision. Our results also provide insight into possible correlations between mergers and closures.

Efficiency, Organizational↗

'Wet Reads' in the age of PACS: technical and workflow considerations for a preliminary report system.

Communication between clinicians, technologists, and radiologists has become more complex, with Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) now allowing the radiologist to be removed from the physical location of the patients and the site of imaging. With these changes, effective communication becomes an ongoing challenge. Efficient communication of study interpretations has also become a priority for radiologists as they struggle to maintain relevance and provide added value to patient care when clinicians have ready access to radiology images. The purpose of this paper is to share our experience in developing and implementing the Collaborative Notification System (CNS), a communication tool used to inform referring clinicians of urgent findings-a.k.a. "wet reads." The system utilizes a system of web pages integrated into PACS for the sending and receiving of succinct messages to provide clinical information at the point of need. A second system of pager alerts provides notification of the need for such communication through a relatively unintrusive, one-way, acknowledged alert system. The CNS provides asynchronous, integrated communication for the reporting of urgent and emergent radiology findings in a complex, geographically distributed medical environment.

Efficiency, Organizational↗