Optimal national prioritization policies for hospital care during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

ABSTRACT: In response to unprecedented surges in the demand for hospital care during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, health systems have prioritized patients with COVID-19 to life-saving hospital care to the detriment of other patients. In contrast to these ad hoc policies, we develop a linear programming framework to optimally schedule elective procedures and allocate hospital beds among all planned and emergency patients to minimize years of life lost. Leveraging a large dataset of administrative patient medical records, we apply our framework to the National Health Service in England and show that an extra 50,750-5,891,608 years of life can be gained compared with prioritization policies that reflect those implemented during the pandemic. Notable health gains are observed for neoplasms, diseases of the

SUBMITTER: D'Aeth JC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10766519 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature