Impact of the weekday-effect on stroke care in Slingeland Hospital

Problem definition: This project investigates the impact of the day of the week in stroke care at Slingeland Hospital. Slingeland is a regional hospital in the East of the Netherlands with 283 beds, 2030 employees, and 9 operating rooms. The stroke care chain consists of three departments: the Stroke Care Unit (SCU), the Acute Care Unit (ACU) and the Neurology clinic. The team of Integral Capacity and Transfer Management perceive that there are weekday differences in the stroke care chain: fewer transfer or discharge possibilities and less (specialized) care. This extends their length of stay (LOS): their time spent on a department or in the hospital. Research approach: We will present a literature study, data analysis, and a simulation study to research the existence and impact of the weekday differences. We will study the routes patients take and their probabilities as well as the lengths of stay and their probability distributions. We use a discrete-event simulation to assess the impact of weekday differences.