Erwin Hans

Health Care Operations

Rising healthcare expenditures across the world and a changing attitude of patients are forcing a radical change in the way healthcare delivery is organized. This rises many challenges for researchers from the operations research/operations management community, who have shown a steeply increased attention in recent years. Using mathematical models and techniques, complex healthcare delivery processes are analyzed and optimized. Within the CHOIR research group of University of Twente, a lot of work is done within this domain, based on an extensive collaboration with the healthcare sector. Our research focus has shifted from the optimization of key hospital resources like operating theatres and radiology equipment to optimization of the entire care pathway. I will introduce CHOIR, present an overview of our studies, not only pertaining to the operating theatre, but also including preceding and succeeding departments, and addressing all hierarchical levels of control. I will also discuss how we strive to let our research result in actual implementation of the outcomes, in order to improve productivity, quality of care, and quality of labor.

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Erwin Hans
University of Twente

Erwin W. Hans is a full tenured Associate Professor Operations Management and Process Optimization in Healthcare, and Director of Education within the Industrial Engineering and Management program at the University of Twente in the Netherlands.

His research focuses on the area of healthcare process optimization using modeling and optimization techniques from Operations Research and Management Science. He has studied many healthcare applications, like the operating theatre, ICU, and radiology departments. He co-founded the Center of Healthcare Operations Improvement & Research (CHOIR – http://www.utwente.nl/choir), the Netherlands' center of expertise in healthcare logistics. CHOIR extensively collaborates with the Dutch healthcare sector, both in OR/OM research and teaching of healthcare professionals.

He is organizer of the EURO-ORAHS 2012 conference at University of Twente (July 15-20, 2012), the annual meeting of the EURO working group on Operational Research Applied to Health Services (http://www.utwente.nl/orahs2012).