A network flow approach for tactical resource planning in outpatient clinics
This paper introduces a deterministic model to plan the physician requirements for outpatient clinics to achieve service targets for the appointment lead-times of patients. The Ministry of Health of Singapore has established targets for the median, 95th percentile, and 100th percentile of appointmen...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Springer US
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/106993 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5966-6032 |
| _version_ | 1826201759639404544 |
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| author | Nguyen, Thu Ba T. Sivakumar, Appa Iyer Graves, Stephen C |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Nguyen, Thu Ba T. Sivakumar, Appa Iyer Graves, Stephen C |
| author_sort | Nguyen, Thu Ba T. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | This paper introduces a deterministic model to plan the physician requirements for outpatient clinics to achieve service targets for the appointment lead-times of patients. The Ministry of Health of Singapore has established targets for the median, 95th percentile, and 100th percentile of appointment lead-times for patients, since long appointment postponements are regarded as being unacceptable for health care services. The study is to match the capacity of the healthcare providers to the patient demand for a re-entry system, subject to restrictions on the appointment lead-times for patients. We propose a mixed-integer programming model for planning capacity with the minimization of the maximum required capacity as its objective. In the model we assume a finite planning horizon, deterministic arrivals, multiple types of patients, identical physicians, and dependent demand between types of patients. We solve this model with a Branch and Cut algorithm. We test the model with numerical experiments using real data from the chosen specialty at the outpatient clinic of the studied hospital. The results show the value of the proposed model via a systematic push-pull mechanism in scheduling patients’ requests to minimize the objective. The clinic should use one of the appointment lead-time targets to determine the patients’ appointment dates. Finally, from the sensitivity analyses we demonstrate that the objective is negatively correlated with first-visit patients’ appointment lead-time targets, the discharge rates, and the re-visit patients’ mean appointment lead-time; we find a positive correlation between the first-visit patients’ mean appointment lead-time and the appointment lead-time targets. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:56:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/106993 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:56:19Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Springer US |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1069932022-09-27T22:59:08Z A network flow approach for tactical resource planning in outpatient clinics Nguyen, Thu Ba T. Sivakumar, Appa Iyer Graves, Stephen C Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Sloan School of Management Graves, Stephen C This paper introduces a deterministic model to plan the physician requirements for outpatient clinics to achieve service targets for the appointment lead-times of patients. The Ministry of Health of Singapore has established targets for the median, 95th percentile, and 100th percentile of appointment lead-times for patients, since long appointment postponements are regarded as being unacceptable for health care services. The study is to match the capacity of the healthcare providers to the patient demand for a re-entry system, subject to restrictions on the appointment lead-times for patients. We propose a mixed-integer programming model for planning capacity with the minimization of the maximum required capacity as its objective. In the model we assume a finite planning horizon, deterministic arrivals, multiple types of patients, identical physicians, and dependent demand between types of patients. We solve this model with a Branch and Cut algorithm. We test the model with numerical experiments using real data from the chosen specialty at the outpatient clinic of the studied hospital. The results show the value of the proposed model via a systematic push-pull mechanism in scheduling patients’ requests to minimize the objective. The clinic should use one of the appointment lead-time targets to determine the patients’ appointment dates. Finally, from the sensitivity analyses we demonstrate that the objective is negatively correlated with first-visit patients’ appointment lead-time targets, the discharge rates, and the re-visit patients’ mean appointment lead-time; we find a positive correlation between the first-visit patients’ mean appointment lead-time and the appointment lead-time targets. 2017-02-17T23:30:00Z 2017-02-17T23:30:00Z 2014-05 2013-06 2016-05-23T12:17:06Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1386-9620 1572-9389 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/106993 Nguyen, Thu Ba T., Appa Iyer Sivakumar, and Stephen C. Graves. “A Network Flow Approach for Tactical Resource Planning in Outpatient Clinics.” Health Care Management Science 18.2 (2015): 124–136. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5966-6032 en http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10729-014-9284-0 Health Care Management Science Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ Springer Science+Business Media New York application/pdf Springer US Springer US |
| spellingShingle | Nguyen, Thu Ba T. Sivakumar, Appa Iyer Graves, Stephen C A network flow approach for tactical resource planning in outpatient clinics |
| title | A network flow approach for tactical resource planning in outpatient clinics |
| title_full | A network flow approach for tactical resource planning in outpatient clinics |
| title_fullStr | A network flow approach for tactical resource planning in outpatient clinics |
| title_full_unstemmed | A network flow approach for tactical resource planning in outpatient clinics |
| title_short | A network flow approach for tactical resource planning in outpatient clinics |
| title_sort | network flow approach for tactical resource planning in outpatient clinics |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/106993 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5966-6032 |
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