PLANNING FOR NURSING SERVICES AT A HOSPIT AL FACING A NONSTATIONARY STOCHASTIC DEMAND CURVE

The search for an appropriate balance between the supply and demand of health care services is at the centre of the nurse staffing problem i n hospitals. A shortage of nursing staff results in poor service and i t has a detrimental effect on the quality of care; a surplus generates unproductive costs. In this paper, a budgeting method based on a math ematical programming model is proposed to support the elaboration of a nursing budget and its allocation to hospital units. The approach tak es health care system policies and labour agreements into account. The context is explained and, after discussing the existing literature an d the assumptions made, a stochastic programming model of the situatio n is derived and an algorithm to solve it is proposed. The paper concl udes by showing, with an example, how the approach can be used to arri ve at well balanced budgets.