Operations Research for Health Care

Operations Research for Health Care (ORHC) focuses on the development and use of operations research in health and health care. The journal publishes high-quality operations research approaches to problems in health care from OR researchers and practitioners.

ORHC encourages contributions related to typical problem areas of health care such as: logistics, finance and management accounting, policy, logistics and architecture as well as hospitals, practices, and care (including home care and long term care).

Typical topics are therefore: forecasting, capacity planning, risk assessment, supply chain management, long term care, home care, location and allocation, and appointment planning, among others.

In addition to original research articles, ORHC publishes:

Review Papers: The content and presentation of this international journal is such as to provide maximum utility to researchers, teachers and practitioners who have an interest in operations research techniques for good health care delivery. Review papers will be presented from time to time, as deemed suitable. Emphasis will be given to those areas in which significant advances are being made. Review Papers are by invitation only.

Case Studies: Real world case studies of OR in practice, describing the use and evaluation of OR approaches by decision makers within government, health care and charitable sectors. The focus should be on challenges faced, the impact of the work, and lessons learned.

Invited Short Communications: A series of invited short communications aimed at clinicians, managers and decision makers working in health. Each of these will give an accessible explanation of an OR method illustrated with applications to health care.

Focused Issue Papers: ORHC also publishes focused issues on topics of interest related to its editorial mission. Such issues typically contain between six and twelve articles. They are put together under the responsibility of one or several guest editors. However, the final decision on all papers will be made by the Editor-in-Chief. Prospective guest editors should provide a call for papers as well as an informative CV.

Prospective review authors or guest editors of focused issues are encouraged to contact the Editor-in-Chief, Professor Stefan Nickel.