Professor Ola Jabali receives an award for her article in IIE Transactions

April 5, 2013

Professor Ola Jabali (Logistics and Operations Management) has won the Best Paper Award for an article published between July 2011 and June 2012 in IIE Transactions, a world-renowned journal published by the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE). The winning article in the “Scheduling and Logistics” category, co-written with David Sinreich (Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Israel) and Nico P. Dellaert (Eidhoven University of Technology, Netherlands) is entitled “Reducing Emergency Department Waiting Times by Adjusting Work Shifts Considering Patient Visits to Multiple Care Providers.” Professor Jabali will receive her award on May 20, at the IIE Annual Conference to be held in San Juan, Puerto Rico. 

Reducing emergency department (ED) overcrowding is a priority for healthcare decision makers. The winning article concentrates on developing efficient work shift schedules that make the best use of current resource capacity with the objective of reducing patient waiting time. The study introduces two algorithms, which combine simulation and optimization models for scheduling the work shifts of all ED resources: physicians, nurses and technicians. The algorithms are distinctive because they account for patients being treated by multiple care providers. They were tested using a simulation based on data from five EDs. The first algorithm achieved an average reduction of 20 to 45% in total patient waiting time. By restructuring ED resources, the second algorithm achieved an average reduction of 20 to 64% in total patient waiting time.

About the IIE

The IIE, founded in 1948, is the world’s largest professional society dedicated solely to the support of the industrial engineering profession. With close to 30,000 members, the IIE organizes lectures, seminars and webinars, and publishes two magazines and four journals, including IIE Transactions.