Human resources allocation in the hospital emergency department during COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

The emergency department during COVID-19 pandemic is the heart of hospital and the specialized human force is considered as the major resource of the services in the department that never should be faced with the lack of human forces. Therefore, the standardization of the number and the way of nursing forces distribution in the department is necessary for the enhancement of efficiency and quality of provided services to patient and productivity in the hospitals. The current research is descriptive analytical and the population includes the patent files that were entered to the hospital emergency department. The number of samples using from the sample volume formula was achieved and 384 files from April were chosen as random and were explored. The provided nursing services in the department and percentage of patients that receive the services were used as the model entries. The model limitations included time period, supply limitations, and non-negative variables. The software output analysis showed that the nurse optimal number in the morning was 14, in the afternoon 12, and in the evening was 15 and totally they were 42 persons. Therefore, this department is facing a shortage of 19 nurses, especially in the night shift.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• human resources allocation
• risk
• hospital emergency department
• pandemic

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Arash Apornak

Arash Apornak has PhD in Industrial Engineering in Scheduling and Production Management. His research interests include quality engineering in healthcare, simulation, optimisation, flexible manufacturing systems in service industries, healthcare systems and supply chain management.