High-dimensional point forecast combinations for emergency department demand

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Guo, Peihong, Loh, Wen Ye, Maung, Kenwin, Choo, Esther Li Wen, Dickens, Borame Lee, Tan, Kelvin Bryan, Abishgenadan, John, Ma, Pei, Lim, Jue Tao
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866910133457518592
author Guo, Peihong
Loh, Wen Ye
Maung, Kenwin
Choo, Esther Li Wen
Dickens, Borame Lee
Tan, Kelvin Bryan
Abishgenadan, John
Ma, Pei
Lim, Jue Tao
author_facet Guo, Peihong
Loh, Wen Ye
Maung, Kenwin
Choo, Esther Li Wen
Dickens, Borame Lee
Tan, Kelvin Bryan
Abishgenadan, John
Ma, Pei
Lim, Jue Tao
contents Current work on forecasting emergency department (ED) admissions focuses on disease aggregates or singular disease types. However, given differences in the dynamics of individual diseases, it is unlikely that any single forecasting model would accurately account for each disease and for all time, leading to significant forecast model uncertainty. Yet, forecasting models for ED admissions to-date do not explore the utility of forecast combinations to improve forecast accuracy and stability. It is also unknown whether improvements in forecast accuracy can be yield from (1) incorporating a large number of environmental and anthropogenic covariates or (2) forecasting total ED causes by aggregating cause-specific ED forecasts. To address this gap, we propose high-dimensional forecast combination schemes to combine a large number of forecasting individual models for forecasting cause-specific ED admissions over multiple causes and forecast horizons. We use time series data of ED admissions with an extensive set of explanatory lagged variables at the national level, including meteorological/ambient air pollutant variables and ED admissions of all 16 causes studied. We show that the simple forecast combinations yield forecast accuracies of around 3.81%-23.54% across causes. Furthermore, forecast combinations outperform individual forecasting models, in more than 50% of scenarios (across all ED admission categories and horizons) in a statistically significant manner. Inclusion of high-dimensional covariates and aggregating cause-specific forecasts to provide all-cause ED forecasts provided modest improvements in forecast accuracy. Forecasting cause-specific ED admissions can provide fine-scale forward guidance on resource optimization and pandemic preparedness and forecast combinations can be used to hedge against model uncertainty when forecasting across a wide range of admission categories.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_11315
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle High-dimensional point forecast combinations for emergency department demand
Guo, Peihong
Loh, Wen Ye
Maung, Kenwin
Choo, Esther Li Wen
Dickens, Borame Lee
Tan, Kelvin Bryan
Abishgenadan, John
Ma, Pei
Lim, Jue Tao
Applications
Quantitative Methods
Machine Learning
Current work on forecasting emergency department (ED) admissions focuses on disease aggregates or singular disease types. However, given differences in the dynamics of individual diseases, it is unlikely that any single forecasting model would accurately account for each disease and for all time, leading to significant forecast model uncertainty. Yet, forecasting models for ED admissions to-date do not explore the utility of forecast combinations to improve forecast accuracy and stability. It is also unknown whether improvements in forecast accuracy can be yield from (1) incorporating a large number of environmental and anthropogenic covariates or (2) forecasting total ED causes by aggregating cause-specific ED forecasts. To address this gap, we propose high-dimensional forecast combination schemes to combine a large number of forecasting individual models for forecasting cause-specific ED admissions over multiple causes and forecast horizons. We use time series data of ED admissions with an extensive set of explanatory lagged variables at the national level, including meteorological/ambient air pollutant variables and ED admissions of all 16 causes studied. We show that the simple forecast combinations yield forecast accuracies of around 3.81%-23.54% across causes. Furthermore, forecast combinations outperform individual forecasting models, in more than 50% of scenarios (across all ED admission categories and horizons) in a statistically significant manner. Inclusion of high-dimensional covariates and aggregating cause-specific forecasts to provide all-cause ED forecasts provided modest improvements in forecast accuracy. Forecasting cause-specific ED admissions can provide fine-scale forward guidance on resource optimization and pandemic preparedness and forecast combinations can be used to hedge against model uncertainty when forecasting across a wide range of admission categories.
title High-dimensional point forecast combinations for emergency department demand
topic Applications
Quantitative Methods
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.11315