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Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation as a Tool for Decision Support for Managing Patient Falls in a Dynamic Hospital Setting

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Decision Support

Part of the book series: Annals of Information Systems ((AOIS,volume 14))

Abstract

Patient falls are one of the most reported safety incidents in North American hospitals and their management is a critical healthcare priority because of their adverse impact on patient welfare as well as being a potential cause for litigation. Agent-based modeling and simulation has been widely used in healthcare as a tool for decision support. This paper discusses empirical findings from such a simulation study designed to understand the impact of critical nursing service parameters such as interaction time delay, number of nursing staff available for work, shift duration (8 h vs. 12 h), and patient acuity level on the percentage of patients successfully served in a timely manner by the nurses, thereby lowering the potential falls by the patients.

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Acknowledgment

We thank CIHR/Auto21 and NSERC Discovery Grant for their generous financial support. We also appreciate the assistance provided by Paul Preney in the earlier work on this project and the nurses from the Leamington District Memorial Hospital without whose support this study would not have been possible.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Odette School of Business, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada, N9B3P4

    Gokul Bhandari & Anne W. Snowdon

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada, N9B3P4

    Ziad Kobti, Ashish Nakhwal & Shamual Rahaman

  3. Kingston General Hospital, Kingston, ON, Canada

    Carol A. Kolga

Authors
  1. Gokul Bhandari
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  2. Ziad Kobti
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  3. Anne W. Snowdon
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  4. Ashish Nakhwal
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  5. Shamual Rahaman
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  6. Carol A. Kolga
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gokul Bhandari .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Fox School of Business & Management, Dept. Management Information Systems, Temple University, North 13th Street 1801, Philadelphia, 19122, Pennsylvania, USA

    David Schuff

  2. Dept. Risk Management/Insurance,, Real Estate & Business Law, Florida State University, Academic Way 821, Tallahassee, 32306-1110, Florida, USA

    David Paradice

  3. Monash University, Caulfield East, Victoria, Australia

    Frada Burstein

  4. College of Business Administration, Dept. Information Systems & Mgmt., University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, 50614-0125, Iowa, USA

    Daniel J. Power

  5. William S. Spears School of Business, Dept. Management Science &, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, 74078, Oklahoma, USA

    Ramesh Sharda

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Bhandari, G., Kobti, Z., Snowdon, A.W., Nakhwal, A., Rahaman, S., Kolga, C.A. (2011). Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation as a Tool for Decision Support for Managing Patient Falls in a Dynamic Hospital Setting. In: Schuff, D., Paradice, D., Burstein, F., Power, D., Sharda, R. (eds) Decision Support. Annals of Information Systems, vol 14. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6181-5_8

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