Scheduling Diagnostic Testing Kit Deliveries with the Mothership and Drone Routing Problem.

A critical component in the public health response to pandemics is the ability to determine the spread of diseases via diagnostic testing kits. Currently, diagnostic testing kits, treatments, and vaccines for the COVID-19 pandemic have been developed and are being distributed to communities worldwide, but the spread of the disease persists. In conjunction, a strong level of social distancing has been established as one of the most basic and reliable ways to mitigate disease spread.

COVID-19: Short term prediction model using daily incidence data.

Background: Prediction of the dynamics of new SARS-CoV-2 infections during the current COVID-19 pandemic is critical for public health planning of efficient health care allocation and monitoring the effects of policy interventions. We describe a new approach that forecasts the number of incident cases in the near future given past occurrences using only a small number of assumptions.

Methods: Our approach to forecasting future COVID-19 cases involves 1) modeling the observed incidence cases using a Poisson distribution for the daily incidence number, and a gamma distribution for the series interval; 2) estimating the effective reproduction number assuming its value stays constant during a short time interval; and 3) drawing future incidence cases from their posterior distributions, assuming that the current transmission rate will stay the same, or change by a certain degree.

Cost-Effectiveness of Three Doses of a Behavioral Intervention to Prevent or Delay Type 2 Diabetes in Rural Areas.

Background: Rural Americans have higher prevalence of obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D) than urban populations and more limited access to behavioral programs to promote healthy lifestyle habits. Descriptive evidence from the Rural Lifestyle Intervention Treatment Effectiveness trial delivered through local cooperative extension service offices in rural areas previously identified that behavioral modification with both nutrition education and coaching resulted in a lower program delivery cost per kilogram of weight loss maintained at 2-years compared with an education-only comparator intervention.

Objective: This analysis extended earlier Rural Lifestyle Intervention Treatment Effectiveness trial research regarding weight loss outcomes to assess whether nutrition education with behavioral coaching delivered through cooperative extension service offices is cost-effective relative to nutrition education only in reducing T2D cases in rural areas.

Practical Use of Process Mapping to Guide Implementation of a Care Coordination Program for Rural Veterans.

Background: Transitions of care are high risk for vulnerable populations such as rural Veterans, and adequate care coordination can alleviate many risks. Single-center care coordination programs have shown promise in improving transitional care practices. However, best practices for implementing effective transitional care interventions are unknown, and a common pitfall is lack of understanding of the current process at different sites.

Forecasting the demand for radiology services.

Since the demand for health services is the key driver for virtually all of a health care organisation's financial and operational activities, it is imperative that health care managers invest the time and effort to develop appropriate and accessible forecasting models for their facility's services. In this article, we analyse and forecast the demand for radiology services at a large, tertiary hospital in Florida. We demonstrate that a comprehensive and accurate forecasting model can be constructed using well-known statistical techniques.

Implementation and dissemination of a transition of care program for rural veterans: a controlled before and after study.

Background: Adapting promising health care interventions to local settings is a critical component in the dissemination and implementation process. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) rural transitions nurse program (TNP) is a nurse-led, Veteran-centered intervention designed to improve transitional care for rural Veterans funded by VA national offices for dissemination to other VA sites serving a predominantly rural Veteran population. Here, we describe our novel approach to the implementation and evaluation = the TNP.

Transitioning to Patient-Centered Medical Homes: Associations With Appointment Availability.

Introduction: Recent implementation of the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) in military primary care has gained significant traction and attention from leadership and policy makers. The study objective was to measure the rate of change in appointment availability before and after primary care clinics were certified as a medical home. Access to care is one core tenet of the medical home and appointment availability is an important indicator of access.

Evaluation of a seven state criminal history screening pilot program for long-term care workers.

This article summarizes results from an evaluation of a federally sponsored criminal history screening (CHS) pilot program to improve screening for workers in long-term care settings. The evaluation addressed eight key issues specified through enabling legislation, including efficiency, costs, and outcomes of screening procedures. Of the 204,339 completed screenings, 3.

Forecasting emergency department arrivals: a tutorial for emergency department directors.

This article is a tutorial for emergency department (ED) medical directors needing to anticipate ED arrivals in support of strategic, tactical, and operational planning and activities. The authors demonstrate our regression-based forecasting models based on data obtained from a large teaching hospital's ED. The versatility of the regression analysis is shown to readily accommodate a variety of forecasting situations.

Costs associated with data collection and reporting for diabetes quality improvement in primary care practices: a report from SNOCAP-USA.

Purpose: Information about the costs and experiences of collecting and reporting quality measure data are vital for practices deciding whether to adopt new quality improvement initiatives or monitor existing initiatives.

Methods: Six primary care practices from Colorado's Improving Performance in Practice program participated. We conducted structured key informant interviews with Improving Performance in Practice coaches and practice managers, clinicians, and staff and directly observed practices.

Rehabilitation settings after joint replacement: an application of multiattribute preference elicitation.

While advances in medical treatment and technologies have the potential to improve the delivery of health care, their use typically involves making multiple, complex decisions. Patients and their medical providers may share in the decision-making processes and balance a variety of criteria and/or attributes in the pursuit of improved health. This necessitates a stronger understanding of the role of human behavior in health care processes and presents a timely opportunity to use decision analysis tools to contribute to this important aspect of health care operations.

A mixed integer programming model to locate traumatic brain injury treatment units in the Department of Veterans Affairs: a case study.

For the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a significant problem facing active duty military personnel, veterans, their families, and caregivers. The VA has designated TBI treatment as one of its physical medicine and rehabilitation special emphasis programs, thereby providing a comprehensive array of treatment services to those military personnel and veterans with TBI. Timely treatment of TBI is critical in achieving maximal recovery, and being in geographical proximity to a medical center with specialized TBI treatment services is a major determinant of whether such treatment is utilized.

Five constants of information technology adoption in healthcare.

The healthcare industry has developed a dependence on information technology (IT) for maintaining and improving both clinical and business operations. Whether IT is used for office automation or for reducing medical errors, there are five constants that routinely influence the successful integration of IT in healthcare. These constants are the proper use and maintenance of the IT budget, the role of supportive leadership, the use of project management, the process of implementation, and the significance of end user involvement.

A network flow approach to optimizing hospital bed capacity decisions.

The delivery of cost-effective and quality hospital-based health care remains an important and ongoing challenge for the American health care industry. Despite numerous advances in medical procedures and technologies, a growing array of outpatient health care options, limits on inpatient reimbursements, and almost two decades of hospital contraction and consolidation, annual inpatient admissions in the United States are currently at levels not seen since the early 1980s. This combination of increased demand and diminished resources makes planning for hospital bed capacity a difficult problem for health care decision makers.

The identification of high-cost patients.

The authors examine whether retrospective claims data are useful to distinguish future high-cost cases among the uninsured. They rely on internal claims and accounting data for the calendar years from 1999 to 2001 from a representative safety net facility to describe the distribution of costs and any characteristics that distinguish high-cost patients from other uninsured patients. They conclude that administrative data combined with in-depth survey information could be a useful approach for identifying cases for intensive case management.

Computer skills for the next generation of healthcare executives.

Students beginning a career in healthcare administration must possess an array of professional and management skills in addition to a strong fundamental understanding of the field of healthcare administration. Proficient computer skills are a prime example of an essential management tool for healthcare administrators. However, it is unclear which computer skills are absolutely necessary for healthcare administrators and the extent of congruency between the computer skills possessed by new graduates and the needs of senior healthcare professionals.

Understanding the impact of variation in the delivery of healthcare services.

In the past several years, healthcare providers have coped with the financial aspects of managed care and the resultant constraints on revenue. In fact, working with decreasing margins of return has become routine for many providers. Beyond straightforward cost cutting, providers must also consider a variety of other operational factors to achieve success.