Capacitating Outpatient Clinics Using Queuing Theory

摘要

While management at outpatient clinics (Ocs) understand that clinic service capacity (rooms) affects patientthroughput, they have no analytical technique to quantify the effects and scientifically allocate capacity. Ocsexperience patient volume and service-mix changes by day of week, which presents difficulties in capacitatingaccording to demand. This paper presents a queuing network methodology to aid decision makers in capacitatingtheir outpatient clinic given variable patient demand and inconsistent patient mix. The methodology uses a generalservice distribution, open-queuing-network model to estimate clinic room utilization and expected patient waittimes. The queuing model was embedded in a spreadsheet, validated, and implemented in seven Banner Healthoutpatient clinics in Arizona and Colorado.