Contents

In the last years reforms of the German health system, e.g. the introduction of the G-DRG-system, have put an increasing cost pressure on hospitals. Therefore their target is to improve quality, transparency, and efficiency of hospital services, e.g. by reducing the length of stay of patients. To achieve this, processes have to be analyzed in order to optimize them if necessary. When looking at the targets of optimization not only efficiency but also quality of care and patient satisfaction (e.g. waiting times) have to be taken into account.

Besides hospitals also home health care services and their planning are discussed in this lecture. Because of the demographic development this is an emerging field in the health care sector. Here, e.g. nurse rosters have to be built which give details about which nurse visits which patient at what time. While doing so different targets have to be regarded, e.g. the continuity of nurse-patient relationship or the minimization of the distances the nurses have to travel.