Catheter planning with goal programming method in neonatal intensive care unit

Successful treatment of diseases depends on many important factors: correct diagnosis, choice and type of equipment, and the risk of infectious diseases. It is crucial to take into these factors, in particular, the risk of infection and the costs of equipment in catheter selection for invasive interventions in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Catheters have different lifetime, therefore, the length of stay (LOS) is important for catheter selection. Random changes in patient's LOS make catheter selection a difficult problem. In this study, catheters designed for newborns in NICUs within the scope of invasive procedures have been optimized with multi‐objective mathematical modeling method. Maximization of catheter additional lifetime, minimization of infection, and total cost have been provided by considering the actual data obtained from neonatal intensive care unit of large hospital in modeling.