APPLYING TOC BUFFER MANAGEMENT IN HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEMS TO IMPROVE HOSPITAL PERFORMANCE

Gustavo Marísio Bacelar-Silva, Pedro Pereira Rodrigues

2012

Abstract

Health care systems around the world are under pressure, the costs are high and rising, and the population is growing and ageing. Health information technology is expected to help improving the health care processes capacity. The aim of this work is to analyze the benefits of the Theory of Constraints (TOC) buffer management implementation in the health care environment concerning the improvement in the patient flow and its management. A literature review was conducted, with an automated search on four databases to identify relevant published articles, written in English language between 2000 and 2010, about the TOC buffer management applied to the health care patient flow. Only three relevant articles were included. The analysis was based on the measurements of the implementations realized in seven different hospitals and for three different purposes: Accident & Emergency department (A&E), admissions and discharge. A statistical analysis conducted in the A&E and admissions post-implementation results demonstrated a significant improvement achieved. Four management control functions improvements were also obtained: prioritize, expedite, escalate and improve. Although few papers were available, TOC buffer management appears to be a good solution to improve performance and management in health care.

References

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Paper Citation


in Harvard Style

Bacelar-Silva G. and Pereira Rodrigues P. (2012). APPLYING TOC BUFFER MANAGEMENT IN HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEMS TO IMPROVE HOSPITAL PERFORMANCE . In Proceedings of the International Conference on Health Informatics - Volume 1: HEALTHINF, (BIOSTEC 2012) ISBN 978-989-8425-88-1, pages 345-349. DOI: 10.5220/0003724703450349


in Bibtex Style

@conference{healthinf12,
author={Gustavo Marísio Bacelar-Silva and Pedro Pereira Rodrigues},
title={APPLYING TOC BUFFER MANAGEMENT IN HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEMS TO IMPROVE HOSPITAL PERFORMANCE},
booktitle={Proceedings of the International Conference on Health Informatics - Volume 1: HEALTHINF, (BIOSTEC 2012)},
year={2012},
pages={345-349},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0003724703450349},
isbn={978-989-8425-88-1},
}


in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the International Conference on Health Informatics - Volume 1: HEALTHINF, (BIOSTEC 2012)
TI - APPLYING TOC BUFFER MANAGEMENT IN HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEMS TO IMPROVE HOSPITAL PERFORMANCE
SN - 978-989-8425-88-1
AU - Bacelar-Silva G.
AU - Pereira Rodrigues P.
PY - 2012
SP - 345
EP - 349
DO - 10.5220/0003724703450349