Program Agenda

Day 1: Thursday, May 17, 2012

7:00-8:00 AM: Registration and Breakfast

8:00-8:30 AM: Welcome, Community Building, and Pre-work Review

8:30-9:00 AM: Variability Discussion

Objective: Identify sources of variability in different health care settings

Readings: "Variability in Surgical Caseload and Access to Intensive Care Services", Anesthesiology (2003). This article will be provided.

9:00-10:30 AM: History and Health Care Applications of Queuing Theory

Objective: Describe the Origins of Queuing Theory and why its application to health care is so valuable.

Queuing theory is a powerful tool that has helped industries from airports to the Internet figure out the relationship between random customer demand and fixed capacity. If this is true, why haven't queuing theory models been applied to health care until recently? This session will describe the origins of Queuing Theory and why its application to health care is so valuable now.

10:30-10:45 AM: Break

10:45-12:45 PM: Introduction to Queuing Theory

Objective: Describe basics of Queuing Theory and the main characteristics of the queuing systems (e.g., waiting time, length of the queue).

How does one begin to coordinate staffing, number of available beds, and number of rooms available for surgery in order to match an ever changing level of patient demand, all while balancing available financial resources? This session will formally introduce the Queuing Theory as a means of managing patient demand within a fixed capacity environment. Throughout this seminar, several queuing theory models will be discussed, because different queuing problems require different models to arrive at an accurate solution. During this particular session, various problems based on different patient arrival and service patterns will be introduced and discussed.

12:45-1:45 PM: Lunch

1:45-2:45 PM: Queues with Waiting and Queues with Rejection

Objective: Describe main types of queuing systems when the request is waiting if the server is not available or if the request is being rejected if the server is not available.

There are many complex variables affecting efficiency in health care, such as average waiting time, number of patients waiting for care, and the probability that a patient will be diverted to another facility. The main two types of queuing theory models covered during this seminar will be introduced, and illustrations from health care as well as non-health care settings will be presented.

2:45-3:15 PM: Break

3:15-4:45 PM: Queuing Model with Waiting and Exponential Arrival and Service

Objective: Apply one of the main queuing models with waiting and exponential arrival and service

How many exam rooms do you need in order to ensure the waiting time to access these units will not exceed the standard you've set? Similarly, how many beds do you need on your medical surgical unit or how many nurses do you need in your ICU? This session will introduce an important Queuing Theory model. Faculty will provide attendees with examples from health care, and will walk through several calculations demonstrating how to use and apply this second Queuing Theory model.

4:45-5:00 PM: Questions, Summary, and Review of Day 1

5:00-6:00 PM: Networking Cocktail Reception

Day 2: Friday, May 18, 2012

7:00-8:00 AM: Continental Breakfast

8:00-8:05 AM: Introduction to Day 2 and Questions

8:05-9:35 AM: Queuing Model with Waiting and Exponential Arrival and Service, Exercises (continuation of the previous sessions)

Objective: Apply one of the main queuing models with waiting and exponential arrival and service

Exercises for the second Queuing Theory model will be completed during this session. Faculty will solve several problems with this model.

9:35-10:00 AM: Break

10:00-11:00 AM: Queueless or Clueless

11:00-12:00 PM: Queuing Model with Priorities

Objective: Apply a queuing model with priorities for different health care settings (e.g., waiting time for triage and triage capacity).

Patients waiting for treatment in the Emergency Department are usually seen in order according to the severity of their symptoms. This session will introduce a Queuing Theory model that will help to calculate things such as waiting time and average number of people in the queue in settings where you have priority issues. Sample calculations lead by faculty will be executed during this session.

12:00-1:00 PM: Lunch

1:00-2:00 PM: Queuing Model with Losses

Objective: Apply a queuing model with losses for different health care settings (e.g., reduce the number of patients leaving without being seen)

Can you accurately estimate how many patients leave your ED without being seen? What measures can be improved in order to reduce this number? This session will introduce the queuing model with losses, which will help predict the likelihood of this event and will also demonstrate how to reduce this number. Participants will complete several calculations with guidance from the faculty.

2:00-3:00 PM: Real-Life Discussion

Objective: Successfully apply the correct queuing theory model to specific problems at your organizations.

This session covers two, real-life examples that have been gathered from attendees prior to the seminar. Dr. Litvak leads attendees through solving these problems, and talks about how to bring the queuing theory models you've learned back to the problems at your organizations.

3:00 PM: Adjourn