Reducing failures in daily medical practice: Healthcare failure mode and effect analysis combined with computer simulation.

This study proposes a risk analysis approach for complex healthcare processes that combines qualitative and quantitative methods to improve patient safety. We combine Healthcare Failure Mode and Effect Analysis with Computer Simulation (HFMEA-CS), to overcome widely recognised HFMEA drawbacks regarding the reproducibility and validity of the outcomes due to human interpretation, and show the application of this methodology in a complex healthcare setting. HFMEA-CS is applied to analyse drug adherence performance in the surgical admission to discharge process of pheochromocytoma patients.

Multi-disciplinary planning in health care: a review.

Multi-disciplinary planning in health care is an emerging research field that applies to many health care areas with similar underlying planning characteristics. We provide a review of the literature and describe cross-relations between different applications. We identify multiple fields to classify the literature upon.

Stochastic integer programming for multi-disciplinary outpatient clinic planning.

Scheduling appointments in a multi-disciplinary clinic is complex, since coordination between disciplines is required. The design of a blueprint schedule for a multi-disciplinary clinic with open access requirements requires an integrated optimization approach, in which all appointment schedules are jointly optimized. As this currently is an open question in the literature, our research is the first to address this problem.

Impact of diagnosis-to-treatment waiting time on survival in esophageal cancer patients - A population-based study in The Netherlands.

Background: The aim of this study was to determine whether the waiting time from diagnosis to treatment with curative intent for esophageal cancer impacts oncologic outcomes.

Patients And Methods: All patients treated by esophagectomy for esophageal carcinoma in 2005-2013 were identified from the Netherlands Cancer Registry. Patients who underwent multimodality treatment and patients treated with surgery only were analyzed separately.

Waiting Time from Diagnosis to Treatment has no Impact on Survival in Patients with Esophageal Cancer.

Background: Waiting time from diagnosis to treatment has emerged as an important quality indicator in cancer care. This study was designed to determine the impact of waiting time on long-term outcome of patients with esophageal cancer who are treated with neoadjuvant therapy followed by surgery or primary surgery.

Methods: Patients who underwent esophagectomy for esophageal cancer at the University Medical Center Utrecht between 2003 and 2014 were included.