A resource allocation model in a healthcare emergency center using goal programming
Abstract
One of the most important issues which most managers in many organizations are concerned about is procuring required resources to maximize system capacity in presence of financial budget restrictions. Management of resource allocation in emergency healthcare centers is a significant area in this case. This study provides an insight into resource (personnel and hospital equipment and facilities) allocation problem for emergency healthcare centers considering different constraints along with multiple goals (including cost, number of admitted patient, cycle time, service capacity, etc.). The problem is formulated as a multi-objective mixed integer linear programming model and it is solved by a weighted goal programming method. The AHP method is used to achieve the weight of goals. A case study with practical data collected from a healthcare center is presented to show the applicability of the proposed model. According to a comparison with the current state, 12.7% improvement in achieving goals is realized. Finally, the behavior of the model is investigated under different scenarios and computational results are presented and discussed.References
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