Modelling and performance measure of a perinatal network centre in the United Kingdom

The main aim of this paper is to model the neonatal unit of a perinatal network centre using the general framework of a loss network model and to estimate some performance measures. A special case of the class of model has been applied for capacity planning to the perinatal network centre of a neonatal network in the United Kingdom. Using the data supplied from the perinatal network centre about admission process, length of stay (LoS) and discharge pattern of the babies, the loss network model is applied to estimate the admission refusal probability in the system under steady-state conditions. Results are derived for different arrival patterns and different combinations of cots at all levels of care of the neonatal unit. This approach can be useful to select the optimal combination of cots for any given acceptance rate of arrival to the neonatal unit.