Centralising the Admission Process in a German Hospital

Abstract

The admission process is the first part of a hospital stay for all in- and outpatients. For the hospital, it is a critical part as all the necessary data must be stored in the hospital information system and all legal documents have to be signed in order to guarantee the best possible treatment and efficient logistics. In this paper, we focus on the admission process in a German hospital. As the admission of a patient, especially informing and advising him, is very time consuming, the hospital aims at installing a digital admission process. The first important step towards this goal is pooling the current decentralised patient admission in one new building. Using a simulation, we determine efficient staffing levels and rosters for the centralised admission and analyse the expected waiting times for the patients. In addition, we outline potential steps towards a digital patient admission process.