Grange Harriet, Johns Gemma, Ahuja Alka, Harper Paul, Williams Elizabeth, Gartner Daniel
School of Mathematics, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF24 4AG, UK.
National Health Service (NHS), Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, Caerleon NP18 3XQ, UK.
Healthcare (Basel). 2024 Feb 23;12(5):533. doi: 10.3390/healthcare12050533.
This paper investigates the planning of virtual ward (VW) capacity including the remote monitoring of frail and elderly patients. The main objective is to optimize VW hub locations across a region in the United Kingdom. Furthermore, assigning the optimal number of clinicians to different regions needs to be considered. We develop a mathematical model that minimizes the setup and travel costs of VW hubs and staff. Our experimental analysis evaluates different levels of demand considering postcode areas within different Trusts, also known as Health Boards, in the National Health Service (NHS). Furthermore, our experiments provide insights into how many hub locations should be deployed and staffed. This can be used to individually find the number of remote monitors and clinicians for each facility as well as the system overall.
本文研究虚拟病房（VW）容量规划，包括对体弱和老年患者的远程监测。主要目标是优化英国一个地区的虚拟病房中心位置。此外，还需要考虑为不同地区分配最佳数量的临床医生。我们开发了一个数学模型，以最小化虚拟病房中心和工作人员的设置及出行成本。我们的实验分析考虑了国民医疗服务体系（NHS）中不同信托（也称为健康委员会）内的邮政编码区域，评估了不同水平的需求。此外，我们的实验还深入探讨了应部署和配备多少个中心位置。这可用于单独确定每个设施以及整个系统的远程监测器和临床医生数量。
