Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1983.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1978.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1978.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1982.

published_or_final_version / Community Medicine / Master / Master of Public Health

published_or_final_version / Medical Sciences / Master / Master of Medical Sciences

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin. School of Nursing, 1973. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record.

This study attempts to improve the delivery of health services by applying operations research techniques to hospital admission systems. Although this study applies to hospital admissions systems in general, the admission system of one ward of one hospital was chosen to be the central object in the study. A computer simulation model was formulated to examine the -results of various policies. In the model, the admission of patients is determined primarily by the scheduling of the operating theatre and secondarily by the availability of beds. The three standard priorities for hospital admissions (elective, urgent and emergent) are given separate considerations as would be the case in real life; because scheduling can be much more flexible for elective patients, while time must be set aside for emergent patients although the hospital has no advance information about them. The general results of this study led to two suggestions that would improve most existing admission systems. The first requires that the hospital set up a special class of patients, the "quickcall patients," who would be willing to be admitted for surgery on short notice. It was shown that this procedure significantly reduced the waiting time for elective surgery. The second requires that the hospital limit each physician to a fixed number of requests for elective surgery at any given time, so that the hospital need not keep extensive files. The model could be extended to examine (1) the sensitivity of the schedule to referral patients, (2) the higher utilization of the operating theatre and (3) waiting priority based on patient need and/or utility. In conclusion the simulation study indicated that these policies if implemented would significantly reduce the waiting time (29% in the model), and increase the hospital's effectiveness in assessing the order of admission for patients. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

Abstract Missed appointment, referred to as “no-shows,” are appointments that were not attended or previously cancelled at least 24-hours prior to the scheduled time. Missed appointments negatively impact patients as well as health care systems. According to Ullah et al. (2018), the financial impact of missed appointments on the healthcare system is more than $150 billion a year. Also, patients with chronic health problems (who are noncompliant with their scheduled appointments) may cause their conditions to worsen. Researchers have implemented several strategies to reduce the negative effects of no-shows. The purpose of this literature review was to explore the effectiveness of appointment reminders. The question driving this literature review was whether the implementation of appointment reminders via other means were more effective in reducing no-show rates, compared to the standard appointment reminder via telephone call. An electronic search was conducted using CINAHL and PubMed. Inclusion criteria consisted of English language, peer-reviewed, academic journal articles published from 2017 to the present. A variety of articles were found, and five of those were critiqued for this review. The literature was synthesized using the John Hopkins Nursing Evidence-Based Practice Model. The key finding of this review is that telephone calls are the most efficient and feasible form of appointment reminders (Lance et al., 2021 & Lavin et al., 2017). Since phone bills are a normal expense for most businesses, health systems should be able to implement the use of this strategy. Keywords: appointment adherence, no-show, missed appointments, appointment attendance

No description available.