Analysis of Slot Allocation Strategies and their Impacts on Appointment Waiting Time in Context of Outpatient Clinics

E-ISSN： 1938-0224|3|3|29-41

ISSN： 1938-0216

Source： International Journal of Healthcare Delivery Reform Initiatives (IJHDRI), Vol.3, Iss.3, 2011-07, pp. : 29-41

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Abstract

One prevailing problem in outpatient clinics with appointment systems in Singapore is that patients have to wait a long time for an available slot once they make requests. Such a long wait may negatively impact on the access to healthcare facilities, patient safety and satisfaction, etc. In recent years, such a problem is becoming worse due to the aging society and growing population. Besides the pressure of increasing demand, healthcare service providers in outpatient clinics are facing other challenges such as the complexity of patient request types, e.g., urgent or normal requests, requests for new or follow-up visit, etc. How to allocate the limited slots to meet the requirements of different requests is one of the performance measurements in outpatient clinics. In this paper, discrete event simulation is applied to study different slot allocation strategies and their impacts on waiting time. The dynamics between new visits and follow-up visits are analyzed as well.