OBJECTIVE To determine whether observable changes in waiting times occurred for certain key elective procedures between 1997 and 2007 in the English National Health Service and to analyse the distribution of those changes between socioeconomic groups as an indicator of equity. DESIGN Retrospective study of population-wide, patient level data using ordinary least squares regression to investig...

Cooperative ITS is enabling vehicles to communicate with the infrastructure to provide improvements in traffic control. A promising approach consists in anticipating the road profile and the upcoming dynamic events like traffic lights. This topic has been addressed in the French public project Co-Drive through functions developed by Valeo named Green Light Optimal Speed Advisor (GLOSA). The sys...

We report on the use of discrete event simulation modeling to support process improvements at an orthopedic outpatient clinic. The clinic was effective in treating patients, but waiting time and congestion in the clinic created patient dissatisfaction and staff morale issues. The modeling helped to identify improvement alternatives including optimized staffing levels, better patient scheduling,...

One of the key applications of operational research in health systems management is to improve the mechanism of resource allocation and program planning in order to increase the system efficiency. This study seeks to offer an innovative method for the planning and scheduling of health service units with the aim of reducing the patients' Length of Stay (LOS) in the Cardiac Surgery Ward of Razavi...

Due to the recent proliferation of digital broadcasting, various schemes for broadcasting continuous media data have been studied. In general broadcasting systems, since data is broadcast repetitively, clients have to wait until their desired data is broadcast. These schemes reduce this waiting time by dividing the data into several segments of equal size. However, data often have appropriate d...

Aims. To evaluate whether reduced waiting time influences survival of patients treated with whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) for brain metastases. Materials and Methods. Retrospective intention-to-treat study including 110 patients treated with primary WBRT (typically 10 fractions of 3 Gy; no other treatment between diagnosis and WBRT). Uni- and multivariate tests were performed. Results. Median...

OBJECTIVES To investigate the relation between perceived waiting times and patients' overall ratings of accident and emergency departments (A&Es) and to explore which patients view waiting times as problematic. METHODS A cross-sectional survey was held in 21 A&Es in the Netherlands. From each A&E, a random sample of patients was investigated. Patients younger than 18 years and patients who ha...