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The September 2007 program is now full. If you would like to be placed on an interest list for future offerings, please contact Janice Gagnon at jgagnon@ihi.org.
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 Listen to the June 18th informational call about this program with Eugene Litvak, PhD.
Do you feel as though you're in a constant struggle trying to balance cost and quality at your organization? Are you making decisions based on your intuition, but are searching for the science to confirm these decisions? As queuing theorists might say, get in line. You’re not alone.
Queuing theory is a powerful tool that helps industries from banking to airports to the Internet figure out the relationship between random customer demand and fixed capacity.
Now hospitals are beginning to use it to uncork chronic bottlenecks in the flow of patients in the emergency department, the operating room, and elsewhere. And the results are often dramatic: saving time, increasing revenue, and raising staff and patient satisfaction.
But queuing theory is not monolithic. There are different models designed to solve different types of problems. The key to success is applying the right model in the right setting.
Read the first in a two-part article, "Queue Fever: Part 1", for a discussion on how mathematics can be a powerful tool for managing random demand in a fixed capacity environment.
Read the second part of a two-part article, "Queue Fever: Part 2", and learn how to smooth variation through better time management. |
