Optimization of Nurse Numbers in Emergency Department of a District Hospital in a Developing Country Iran, 2014

Background: this study aims to optimize nurse numbers in emergency department of a district hospital in Iran using linear programming. Material and methods: through observation and checklist data about average patient arrival, delivery time of care services needed for patients and number of nurses were obtained. Using linear programming optimum number of nurse needed for right delivery of services was calculated. Results: optimum number of nurses was calculated as 12 nurses, but because of some issues in 3 rd shift, real number of nurses needed for a 24 hours period is equal to 16 (12+4) nurses (12 as minimum needed plus nurses who stay and don’t leave the 3 rd shift till tomorrow morning). Conclusion: Using LP models can be useful for estimating optimum number of nurses for different wards of hospitals, so they can reduce their costs and reach more productivity.