Organisation: University of Twente
Position: Full professor Stochastic Operations Research
Careful care planning under COVID-19 restrictions
COVID-19 introduced considerable restrictions on capacity in healthcare. This is observed at ICUs and Wards via restricted availability of beds for COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients and at outpatient clinics and day-treatment centers due to distancing measures restricting the number of patients simultaneously present in, e.g., waiting areas. We first review lessons learned for patient spreading among hospitals to fairly balance the ICU and Ward occupancy due to COVID-19 patients. Second, we consider optimal planning of outpatient clinic and day-treatment centers to maximize the number of in-person appointments under COVID-19 distancing measures. In both cases, the aim is to maximize the capacity available for non-COVID-19 patients, while taking into account the allocation of capacity to COVID-19 patients, limited availability of healthcare professionals, space, beds and treatment rooms. Results are illustrated for several Dutch hospitals.
Biography
Richard J. Boucherie is full professor of Stochastic Operations Research in the department of Applied Mathematics of the University of Twente and chair of the Dutch Platform for Mathematics. He is co-founder and co-chair of the University of Twente Center for Healthcare Operations Improvement and Research (CHOIR) in the area of healthcare logistics, and co-founder of the spin-off company Rhythm, that carries out actual implementations of healthcare logistics solutions in healthcare organisations. Richard received M.Sc. degrees in Mathematics (Stochastic Operations Research) and Theoretical Physics (Statistical Physics) from the Universiteit Leiden, and received the Ph.D. degree in Econometrics from the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. His research interests are in queueing theory, Petri nets and Markov decision theory, with application areas including wireless and sensor networks, road traffic, network intrusion detection and prevention, and healthcare operations research.
