Prioritization of surgical patients

4^th Global Surgery and Transplantation Congress

October 03-04, 2016 Atlanta, USA

Samira Abbasgholizadeh Rahimi

Universit�© Laval, Canada

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Transplant Technol Res

Abstract :

Statement of the problem: Access to healthcare services and long waiting time is one of the main issues in most of the countries including Canada and United States. Healthcare organizations canâ��t increase their limited resources nor treat all patients simultaneously. Then, patientsâ�� access to these services should be prioritized in a way that best use the scarce resources. Some challenging aspects in patientsâ�� prioritization problem are: Considering multiple conflicting criteria; incomplete and imprecise data; associated risks that threaten patients on waiting lists; uncertainties in cliniciansâ�� decisions; involving group of decision makersâ�� opinions and; systemâ��s dynamic behavior. Inappropriate prioritization of patients waiting for treatment, affects directly on inefficiencies in healthcare delivery, quality of care, and most importantly on patientsâ�� safety and their satisfaction. Inspired by these facts, in this study, we propose novel hybrid frameworks to prioritize surgical patients by addressing a number of main shortcomings of introduced/used prioritization methods in the literature and in practice. Through the application of the proposed comprehensive framework in the orthopedic surgery ward at Shohada University Hospital, and in an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), clinical program called PACEC at the Institute for Disability Rehabilitation in Physics of Qu�©bec (IRDPQ), we show the effectiveness of our approaches comparing the currently used ones. The implementation results prove that this framework can be adopted easily and effectively in other healthcare organizations as well. In brief the results of this study could be beneficial for healthcare professionals to: Evaluate surgical patientsâ�� priority more accurately and easily; determine policies and guidelines for patientsâ�� prioritization and scheduling; manage waiting lists properly; decrease the time required for surgical patientsâ�� prioritization; increase equity and justice among surgical patients; diminish risks that threaten surgical patients during waiting time; consider group of decision makersâ�� opinions in the prioritization procedure to prevent possible biases in decision-making; involve surgical patients and their families in the prioritization procedure to increase their satisfaction; handle uncertainties in the decision-making procedure and; increase quality of care.

Biography :

Email: samira.abbasgholizadeh-rahimi.1@ulaval.ca