Modeling and simulation of patient admission services in a multi-specialty outpatient clinic

Tactical planning of resources in healthcare clinics concerns elective patient admission planning and the intermediate term allocation of resource capacities. Its main objectives are to achieve equitable access for patients, to serve the strategically agreed number of patients, and to use resources efficiently. In this paper, we describe a simulation model for an outpatient healthcare clinic facing multiple issues related to patient admission and resource workflow. The main problems identified at the clinic are: 1) phones are not answered promptly and 2) patients experience long wait time to check in and check out. The simulation model focuses on the front desk operations. We investigate different resource allocation policies and report on computational results based on a real clinic, historical data, and both patient and management performance measures.