Improving Patient Transport in Hospitals: A Literature Review of Operations Research Methods

Most activities in hospitals require the presence of the patient. Delays in patient transport can therefore cause disruptions and costly downtime in many different areas and departments, which makes patient transport planning a central operational problem in hospitals. This paper provides the first literature review of Operations Research approaches for improving non-emergency patient transport in hospitals. We structure the different patient transport problems considered in the literature according to several main characteristics and introduce a four-field notation for patient transport problems that allows for a concise representation of different problem variants. We then analyze the relevant literature with respect to different aspects related to the considered problem variant, the employed modeling and solution techniques, as well as the data used and the level of practical implementation achieved. Based on our literature analysis and semi-structured interviews with hospital practitioners, we provide a comparison of current hospital practice and the existing literature on patient transport, and we identify research gaps and formulate an agenda for relevant future research in this area.