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Agent-Based Patient Scheduling in Hospitals

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Multiagent Engineering

Part of the book series: International Handbooks on Information Systems ((INFOSYS))

Abstract

Patient scheduling in hospitals is a very complex task. This complexity stems from the distributed structure of hospitals and the dynamics of the treatment process. Hospitals consist of various autonomous, administratively distinct units which are visited by the patients according to their individual disease. However, the pathways (the needed medical actions) and the medical priorities (the health condition of the patients) are likely to change due to new findings about the diseases of the patients during examination. Moreover, the durations of the treatments and examinations are stochastic. Additional problems for patient scheduling in hospitals arise from complications and emergencies. Thus, patient scheduling in hospitals requires a distributed and flexible approach. To this end, a flexible, agent-based approach to patient scheduling is developed in this chapter. After a description of the addressed patient scheduling problem, the proposed mechanism for patient-scheduling is presented and evaluated.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lehrstuhl für ABWL und Wirtschaftsinformatik, Universität Mannheim, Mannheim

    Torsten O. Paulussen, Anja Zöller, Franz Rothlauf & Armin Heinzl

  2. Fachbereich Informatik, Verteilte Systeme und Informationssysteme, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg

    Lars Braubach, Alexander Pokahr & Winfried Lamersdorf

Authors
  1. Torsten O. Paulussen
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  2. Anja Zöller
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  3. Franz Rothlauf
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  4. Armin Heinzl
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  5. Lars Braubach
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  6. Alexander Pokahr
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  7. Winfried Lamersdorf
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Wirtschaftsinformatik II (510 O), Universität Hohenheim, Schwerzstraße 35, 70599, Stuttgart, Germany

    Stefan Kirn

  2. Technologie-Zentrum Informatik, Universität Bremen, Am Fallturm 1, 28359, Bremen, Germany

    Otthein Herzog

  3. Institut für Programmstrukturen und Datenorganisation (IPD), Universität Karlsruhe (TH), Am Fasanengarten 5, 76131, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Peter Lockemann

  4. Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4, RWTH Aachen, Ahornstraße 55, 52074, Aachen, Germany

    Otto Spaniol

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© 2006 Springer Berlin · Heidelberg

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Paulussen, T.O. et al. (2006). Agent-Based Patient Scheduling in Hospitals. In: Kirn, S., Herzog, O., Lockemann, P., Spaniol, O. (eds) Multiagent Engineering. International Handbooks on Information Systems. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-32062-8_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-32062-8_14

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-31406-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-32062-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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