Title: Variations of length of stay: a case study using control charts in the CRISP-DM framework

Authors: Nasibeh Azadeh-Fard; Fadel M. Megahed; Fatma Pakdil

Addresses: Industrial and Systems Engineering Department, Rochester Institute of Technology, 81 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, 14623, NY, USA ' Farmer School of Business, Center for Analytics and Decision Science, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, USA ' Department of Business Administration, Eastern Connecticut State University, Willimantic, Connecticut, USA

Abstract: In-patient length of stay (LOS) at hospitals is considered a critical 'catch-all' metric because it is widely used to measure the overall efficiency of healthcare services. The goal of this paper is to effectively analyse and monitor hospital LOS to help improve healthcare quality. Given the fact that abnormal LOS results in increasing cost for all stakeholders, this study proposes a new framework based on cross-industry standard process for data mining framework (CRISP-DM) and Six Sigma methodology, including control charts for monitoring and improving LOS. The utility of the proposed method is demonstrated through a case study involving 11,722 internal medicine patients at a large hospital in Southwest Virginia. Outcomes of this study have potential to support decision makers at hospitals to detect abnormal LOS by identifying effective and efficient ways to minimise it, thereby reducing costs.

Keywords: hospital length of stay; length of stay; LOS; control charts; quality; internal medicine; CRISP-DM; data mining; DMAIC; quality improvement in healthcare; I-MR charts; Six Sigma.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSSCA.2019.101418

International Journal of Six Sigma and Competitive Advantage, 2019 Vol.11 No.2/3, pp.204 - 225

Received: 11 Jul 2018
Accepted: 14 Feb 2019

Published online: 07 Aug 2019 *

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