A decision support system to meet the fluctuating needs of a hospital nursing unit.

Regardless of the care taken in generating a nursing unit staff schedule, changes in patient census and acuity as well as staff illnesses and unexpected absenteeism create unanticipated "gaps" in a schedule. Due to a lack of timely information on staff availability and nursing preferences, filling these vacancies can be costly and time consuming. We propose that by combining a revised staffing structure with an integrated database management system, a decision support system can be developed. This can enable non-management staff to make substantial time and cost saving decisions while maintaining the highest level of patient care.