Engineering Inpatient Discharges: Disposition Prediction and Day-of-Discharge Planning¶
Abstract¶
Inefficient discharge planning is a major cause of both inpatient discharge delays and upstream patient waiting. While this problem has been acknowledged in medical literature, there exist few attempts to analytically propose optimal solutions. We propose several systems engineering approaches to improve aspects of discharge planning. We apply these techniques in preemptive strategies, such as discharge disposition prediction, as well as in day-of-discharge strategies, such as unit discharge targets and care provider patient prioritization. This talk will provide an overview of the methods that have been developed thus far, the results found, and the current research directions being explored.
Bio
Nicholas Ballester is a current PhD candidate at Wright State University with a focus in Industrial and Human Systems, under the advisorship of Dr. Pratik Parikh. He got his BS in Industrial Engineering at Wright State and was directly admitted to the PhD program thereafter. His research interests are in improving healthcare processes through simulation, statistics, and optimization.