An examination of patient referral and discharge policies using a multiple objective semi-Markov decision process

A model is developed for determining an appropriate policy for referral or discharge of patients from the different modes of care in a progressive patient care facility. The objectives of the model are to achieve a high probability that the average patient recovers and to provide care at a low cost. Previous results concerning multichain semi-Markov processes are used in conjunction with vector maximum in order to generate all nondominated solutions to the problem.