CHOIR in practice

Flowing through hospitals
Theresia van Essen

Due to an aging population and increased healthcare costs, hospitals are forced to use their resources more efficiently. Practitioners in hospitals often have the idea that this will reduce the quality of care. On the contrary, one may argue that improving the efficiency should also improve the quality of care as, e.g., unnecessary waiting time is reduced or even eliminated. However, improving the efficiency in hospitals is challenging as many uncertainties have to be taken into account. In this dissertation, various solution methods that deal with these uncertainties and aim to minimize waiting times, create robust schedules, and account for the arrival of emergency patients are discussed.

Biography:

Theresia van Essen graduated in 2009 at Delft University of Technology with a cum laude Master's of Science degree in Applied Mathematics with a thesis on the hub location problem carried out at ORTEC in Gouda. After finishing her master studies, Theresia joined the department Applied Mathematics of the University of Twente for a Ph.D. program with the Discrete Mathematics and Mathematical Programming group. Additionally, she conducted research at HagaZiekenhuis in The Hague. In 2012, she visited the Karlsruhe University of Technology in Germany for a period of three months.