Community Health

Operations Research projects for Community Health Services

1. Simulation of Cytology Workloads - cytologists at the dignostic labs (run out of Auckland Hospital) are overworked, but on paper there should be enough staff. This project would involve talking with senior staff in Cytology and building a simulation of their work schedules. Using this simulation and other Operations Research/Statistics methods we would analyse their workloads to try and determine the "best" number of staff and/or allocation of jobs within Cytology. By "streamlining" the workload of the cytologists we could help their lab run more efficiently and improve their service to the community.

2. Simulation of Student Health - after a discussion with a senior nurse at Student Health it became apparent that their operations could also use some analysis to help improve efficient use of resources and staff. This project would involve approaching managers at Student Health, building a simulation model of the clinic and using this simulation model to experiment with different policies for staffing, "workflow" for patients, etc. By improving the efficiency of Student Health we could allow students to get more time with health care staff and/or allow more students to be seen earlier.

The projects will be implemented with the help of Dr. Mike O'Sullivan.

Applications for this project are now closed