Analysis of Clinic Layouts and Patient-Centered Procedural Innovations using Discrete-Event Simulation

Abstract

Given that healthcare costs in the U.S. continue to climb, engineering managers can help address this situation by identifying designs for cost savings. Using discrete-event simulation, the layout of four different healthcare clinic scenarios considered in a redesign program named Patient Aligned Care Teams were studied. Model 1 is an existing layout in many clinics and Model 2 is staff-centered, while Models 3 and 4 provide additional space including common hallway(s). Our main conclusion is that Model 4 reduces patient travel distances and average queueing waits, while also providing the best privacy in accordance with HIPAA and the most security for the staff.

Department(s)

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering

Research Center/Lab(s)

Intelligent Systems Center

Comments

This work was supported by the Veterans Health Administration (Project 00036096).

Keywords and Phrases

Computer Simulation; Healthcare Layout; Improving Patient Flow; Resource Utilization

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

1042-9247

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2016 Taylor & Francis, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jul 2016

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