OR’s and ICU’s are an expensive resource for a hospital. Read about how a hospital is keeping people out of the ICU when they don’t need it. It’s an interesting application of operations theory. And it evokes some of the conflicting emotions that operations research and operations management often does. Capacity is managed by denying service to people who don’t need it. Is this bad service? or good use of scarce resources? And will the customers be happy? If they have a higher survival rate, they should be. But of course people often do not behave rationally.
Managing capacity of itensive care units « The Operations Room
Supply Chain and Logistics 