Simulation-based operation management of outpatient departments in university hospitals

Recently, the growth of outpatient clinic capacity has not matched the increasing demand on outpatient clinics, which has led to long waiting times for patients and overtime work for clinic staff. This has three significant negative effects on patients and staff: (1) patients´ distrust of the procedures for treating outpatients increases, (2) nurses´ stress from patient complaints increases, and (3) doctors´ pressure to shorten treatment times while maintaining high levels of service quality increases. Presented in this paper is a simulation-based operation management method that provides the stakeholders with future visibility in outpatient departments. The future visibility is obtained from the current situation of the outpatient department using a simulation-based scheduling system and is shared by a business process management system that informs patients of their expected waiting time in order to lower the workload and pressure on clinic staff and to allow staff to manage exceptions proactively.