Course Description
Operational logistics in healthcare delivery including patient flow, operating room scheduling, bed management, transportation, and materials handling. Students learn to optimize throughput, reduce waiting times, and improve resource utilization using queuing theory, simulation, and optimization techniques.
Credit Hours
3 credits (3 lecture)
Prerequisites
OPS 601, quantitative methods course recommended
Student Learning Outcomes
- Analyze patient flow using queuing models and discrete event simulation
- Design operating room scheduling systems that maximize utilization
- Develop bed management strategies for census optimization
- Apply optimization techniques to ambulance routing and patient transport
- Implement materials management systems for surgical supplies
- Balance capacity and demand across healthcare service lines
Course Topics
- Patient Flow Analysis: Bottleneck Identification, Theory of Constraints
- Operating Room Management: Block Scheduling, Case Duration Prediction
- Emergency Department Flow: Triage Optimization, Left Without Being Seen
- Bed Management: Admission Prediction, Discharge Planning
- Healthcare Transportation: Ambulance Deployment, Patient Transport
- Warehouse Operations: Central Sterile, Case Carts, Par Replenishment
- Simulation Modeling in Healthcare
Required Textbooks
- Hall: Patient Flow (2nd ed.)
- Ozcan: Quantitative Methods in Health Care Management
Evaluation Methods
Simulation Project (35%), Case Studies (25%), Problem Sets (25%), Final Exam (15%)