ABSTRACT
Allocation of inpatient resources such as beds, operating theatre facilities and nursing staff to specialties is an important issue for effective and efficient hospital operations management. The traditional approach to this allocation problem is a fragmented one. For example, one year the allocation of beds to specialties might be discussed because of the need to achieve a general reduction in the number of beds available at the hospital level.The next year the utilisation of operating theatre capacity might be scrutinised, resulting in a revised operating theatre timetable, and in the third year nursing workload might be the focus of discussion due to shortages of qualified nursing staff. However, these allocations of different resources, as required for inpatient admissions, are interconnected and should therefore be addressed in a combined effort.
