Reallocation of beds to reduce waiting time for cardiac surgery.

Waiting times for cardiac surgery is a significant problem in the medical world. The fact that patients' length of stay varies considerably makes effective hospital operation a difficult job. This paper analyzes patients' length of stay in hospital wards following cardiac surgery. Three scenarios for hospital management are presented and evaluated using Markov chain theory and simulation experiments. The aim of our analyses is to examine unused bed capacity in hospital wards. This makes it possible to attain a more efficient allocation of hospital beds. The results presented in this paper provide useful insight into relationships between patients' length of stay, bed availability, and hospital waiting lists.