Project Planning for Improvement in a Healthcare Environment: Developing a Prioritization approach to manage patients' access to the Urodynamics exam

Authors

  • Ana Tereza Lopes Pécora Complexo Hospital de Clínicas - CHC- UFPR - Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR) Brazil
  • Rogério de Fraga Complexo Hospital de Clínicas - CHC- UFPR - Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR) Brazil
  • Angel Ruiz Faculté des sciences de l'administration (FSA), Pavillon Palasis-Prince, 2325, rue de la Terrasse, Université Laval (ULAVAL), Québec, Canada G1V 0A6 Centre Interuniversitaire de Recherche sur les Reseaux d'Entreprise, la Logistique et le Transport (CIRRELT) Canada
  • José Roberto Frega Laboratório de Inovação para Cidades Inteligentes (LINCI) - Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR) Departamento de Administração Geral e Aplicada (DAGA) – Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR) Brazil
  • Jose Eduardo Pecora Jr Universidade Federal do Paraná Brazil

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.19255/JMPM02505

Keywords:

Patients' Prioritization, Urodynamics, Project Management, Fuzzy AHP, Healthcare Management

Abstract

The first in-first out rule does not seem the most appropriated to manage the access of patients to health exams or services such as surgery. Indeed, each patient has his/her level of urgency and, furthermore the utility that each patient retires from the service differs according to several clinical but also risk and social related aspects. The decision of which patient to prioritize is tough because, in the current context where capacity is much lower than demand, choosing one patient means to delay others. Thus, this paper proposes a project methodology to prioritize patients into a Urodynamic service. The methodology, developed by a multidisciplinary team, is applied in a public hospital in Brazil, taking into consideration clinical and social criteria. We interviewed Urodynamics specialists, and a Fuzzy-AHP method is used to compute the weight of each criterion. Our preliminary results show the potential of the proposed methodology and methods, and that not only for the described case, but to other health services facing similar problems.

Author Biographies

Ana Tereza Lopes Pécora, Complexo Hospital de Clínicas - CHC- UFPR - Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR) Brazil

Ana Tereza Lopes Pécora is a nurse at the Clinical Hospital of Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brazil. She has 24 years of experience in different sectors of this hospital, such as cardiac surgery, ICU, surgical center, and urology. She has experience as auditor in private health insurance. She is a Ph.D. student, in 2020 she did a research internship at Laval University in Quebec, Canada, studying the prioritization of patients queued for medical procedures. She is a member of the GTAO Applied Technology Optimization Group of the Federal University of Parana.

Rogério de Fraga, Complexo Hospital de Clínicas - CHC- UFPR - Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR) Brazil

Rogério de Fraga, Ph.D. graduated in Medicine from the Federal University of Paraná (1997). Medical Residency in General Surgery (1999) and Urology (2001) by Hospital Universitário Evangélico de Curitiba. Master (2003) and Doctor degree (2007) in Surgery from the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the State University of Campinas - UNICAMP. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery, Discipline of Urology, Health Sciences Sector, Federal University of Paraná. Titular Member of the Brazilian Society of Urology. Coordinator of the Urinary Dysfunction and Urogynecology Clinic at CHC-UFPR and the Discipline of Philosophical Bases of Medical Practice. Vice-Coordinator of the Postgraduate Program in Surgical Clinic HC-UFPR (Responsible for the Disciplines of Bioethics, Adult Didactics, and Communication). Professor of the Individual Development Plan - Medical Course at the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná. He is currently technical director of Hospital Marcelino Champagnat at Curitiba.

Angel Ruiz, Faculté des sciences de l'administration (FSA), Pavillon Palasis-Prince, 2325, rue de la Terrasse, Université Laval (ULAVAL), Québec, Canada G1V 0A6 Centre Interuniversitaire de Recherche sur les Reseaux d'Entreprise, la Logistique et le Transport (CIRRELT) Canada

Angel Ruiz, Ph.D., is full professor at the Faculty of business administration, Université Laval, in Canada. He earned his doctoral degree in control systems at the University of Technology of Compiegne, France. He is member of the Interuniversity Research Center on Enterprise Networks, Logistics and Transportation (CIRRELT). His main research interests are operations research applied to healthcare systems and emergency logistics management. He has published more than 60 scientific articles in international journals related to these disciplines, and he regularly presents his research works in focused international conferences, such as ORAHS or HCSE.

José Roberto Frega, Laboratório de Inovação para Cidades Inteligentes (LINCI) - Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR) Departamento de Administração Geral e Aplicada (DAGA) – Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR) Brazil

José Roberto Frega, Ph.D., is associate professor at the Faculty of Business Administration, Universidade Federal do Paraná, in Brazil. He earned his doctoral degree in decision-making processes at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná, Brazil. Former Equipment Engineer at PETROBRAS, also worked as an International Development Bank consultant and as CIO and software architect at PARANACIDADE, a Government spin-off NGO responsible for the most significant development programs in Paraná (Parana Urbano I – US$450MM – and II – US$ 181MM). His main research interests are decision-making, business process management, quantitative methods, econometrics, and statistics. He has published more than 40 scientific articles in journals related to business administration.

Jose Eduardo Pecora Jr, Universidade Federal do Paraná Brazil

Departamento de Administração Geral e Aplicada (DAGA) – Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR) Laboratório de Inovação para Cidades Inteligentes (LINCI) - Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR) Centre Interuniversitaire de Recherche sur les Reseaux d'Entreprise, la Logistique et le Transport (CIRRELT) Jose Eduardo Pécora Junior Ph.D., is associated professor at the Faculty of business administration, Universidade Federal do Parana, in Brazil. He earned his doctoral degree in Operations Decision Systems, Faculté des Sciences de l’Administration, Université Laval, Canada. He is a member of the Interuniversity Research Center on Enterprise Networks, Logistics and Transportation (CIRRELT). His main research interests are analytics applied to healthcare management, transportation, and technological development.

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Published

2022-05-20

How to Cite

Lopes Pécora, A. T. ., Fraga, R. de, Ruiz, A. ., Frega, J. R. ., & Pecora Jr, J. E. . (2022). Project Planning for Improvement in a Healthcare Environment: Developing a Prioritization approach to manage patients’ access to the Urodynamics exam. The Journal of Modern Project Management, 8(3). https://doi.org/10.19255/JMPM02505

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 3 (2021): The Journal of Modern Project Management

Section

Articles-JMPM

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Copyright (c) 2022 Ana Tereza Lopes Pécora, Rogério de Fraga, Angel Ruiz, José Roberto Frega, Jose Eduardo Pecora Jr

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